North Paw: Vibrating anklet that always points magnetic north

If you spend a lot of time outdoors, there are more than a few moments where not knowing magnetic north could put you in a real spot or even potentially kill you. Fortunately, you can build yourself an anklet that always lets you know exactly where it is.

The concept is pretty simple, but for the visually oriented:

Yes, some assembly is required, but honestly, if you can drive a screw, you can solder a connection. If you need a quick refresher course, here’s a comic book that’ll do just that.

Once it’s assembled, you have an anklet with eight pager motors surrounding your leg. As you move through the woods, or even just the city, the anklet will gently vibrate to let you know where precisely magnetic north is.

The neat part is that your brain quickly learns to ignore the vibration, and you just sort of “know” where north is, at all times. With this around your ankle, you may not always know exactly where you are, but at least you won’t be totally lost.

North Paw [ThinkGeek]