A sense of direction

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Do you have a good sense of direction? Not just expert compass-reading skills, but an innate sense of which way to head? While some animals use the Earth’s magnetic field to determine the right way to go when migrating, for humans, a perfect sense of direction requires an extra tool of some sort.

But what if your body was ‘told’ every time you pointed north – how would that affect your sense of place and understanding of your environment? Researchers are trying to find out by questioning people who have signed up for Cyborg Nest’s North Sense.

The North Sense allows people to sense the electromagnetic field by attaching a small device to their bodies that vibrates whenever they face north. In this way, the device acts as an exo-sense – it sits outside the body, but is permanently attached, like other sense organs.

This human-enhancement technology was designed by Cyborg Nest, which was co-founded ...