User:PaulBeckmann/Pedestrian Navigation

Most people move around in their environment. Until very recently, humans moved by walking. Pedestrian Navigation encompasses how people move through their environments while on foot. This often involves goal-directed behavior but can also be exploratory in nature.

Dead Reckoning
Dead Reckoning is a simple technique to estimate position that requires a way of estimating time, velocity and direction. Attaching a cord with knots at regular intervals to a float, throwing it overboard, and counting the number of knots that went by over a fixed period of time was a way of estimating velocity. (It was also the method used to measure one nautical mile per hour or knot).

Dead reckoning is the principle behind the use of inertial navigation systems generally and the advent of miniature laser gyro systems has made it practical to consider these techniques for pedestrian navigation.

Map & Compass
Another common way of accomplishing pedestrian navigation is with map and Compass, especially when outside of city boundaries. This is essentially a method of triangulation. Another method uses a pair of Peloruses or Alidades mounted on a ship to perform the task of nautical piloting.

The technique involves determining an angular relationship between your position and that of two other known locations. By drawing lines of position on a map along the directions observed to those points from your location, the point of intersection of those two lines is the estimate of your location. If three or more points are used and their lines of positions established, the error in your location estimate can be determined.

Becoming "unlost"
(Herb Pick & ??? in the 1990's on expert map use)

Building Directories
Interactive Kiosks

Orientation & Mobility Training
(Highlight the distinction here between Guide Dog / Cane mobility aids and navigational aids)