Wataru Chino, CEO of Ashirase, came up with the idea for a new navigational device after his grandmother-in-law who was visually impaired died after a fall down an embankment while out walking. As a research and development engineer on automated driving applications, he used his experience to design a new device that could assist visually impaired pedestrians. The Ashirase system, sharing the company name, has two parts. One part is the dedicated Ashirase navigation app that runs on the user's smartphone, and the other is a silicone shoe insert that holds a combination motion sensor-electronic compass.The shoe insert itself also has two main parts: one part fits inside the shoe and has vibrating pods along a length of fabric, and the other sits on top of the shoe holds the circuitry to run the navigation applications as well as a battery to power the vibrating pods. The device can be fitted onto a wide variety of standard shoes.
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