From Fastcompany

How One Blind Marathon Runner Is Using Technology To Run Solo
  By collaborating with IBM, Simon Wheatcroft wants to give blind 
runners the tools to run independently.
  Elizabeth Segran 04.21.16 6:06 AM
  Of the 27,487 runners who traversed the city of Boston this 
year for the marathon, 39 were visually impaired.
  Running a marathon blind can be terrifying: Hordes of runners 
are bolting toward you, crowds scream from the sidelines, and you 
have no idea if you're about to crash into someone ahead of you.  
But for 31-year-old Simon Wheatcroft, a blind Englishman who 
completed the marathon on Monday, there is nothing more 
exhilarating.
  "I want to take it all in," he tells Fast Company.  "I want to 
enjoy the sounds of the other runners and the people cheering."
  Marathon organizers pair blind runners with guides who run at 
the same pace, sometimes even connected by a rope.  While 
Wheatcroft ran with two guides on Monday, eventually he would 
like to be able to run a marathon independently.
  "The idea of running solo has always been in the back of my 
mind," he says.  "I've been dreaming about it for four years.  It 
took me some time to become mentally comfortable with the 
concept.  his
  He believes that technology is the key to making this happen.  
He points out that there are already many different tools on the 
market-like sophisticated GPS navigation and motion sensors-that 
could help visually impaired runners.  It's just a matter of 
putting them together into a customized tool.
  Over the last month, Wheatcroft has been collaborating with IBM 
to develop an iPhone app allowing him to navigate a marathon 
course without help.  He tested it out for the first time at 
Monday's marathon.  Little signals alerted him whenever he veered 
too far to the right or left, so he didn't worry about going off 
course.
  "I could enjoy the race.  I could listen to the crowd," 
Wheatcroft says.  "The app only alerted me if I went wrong.  The 
rest of the time, it was completely silent."
  Running Blind
  At the age of 13, Wheatcroft discovered he had a degenerative 
eye disease and by 17, he had lost his vision completely.
  Before he tried running, he tried climbing.  He had the 
romantic notion of asking his girlfriend to marry him from the 
top of a mountain in California.  But as he began the journey, he 
realized the ascent would be far more difficult than he had 
anticipated.  There were too many dangerous cliffs and crevices 
to circumvent; too many ways to get hurt.  In the end, he was 
forced to propose halfway up the mountain, and although she said 
yes, he still felt defeated.
  "It was just too hard," Wheatcroft says.  "But then I had to 
live with the fact that I had to quit climbing.  It plagued me."
  When the couple returned to England, Wheatcroft decided he 
would never again abandon a challenge because of his blindness.  
Running seemed insurmountably difficult to him at the time.  But 
while many blind people avoid running altogether because it is 
just too complicated, Wheatcroft was determined not only to 
become a runner, but to run on his own, without having to depend 
on a guide.
  "When I started, I ran into lampposts and traffic lights and 
trees," he recalls.  When you're charging forward at a high 
velocity, anything you crash into can cause pain.  Cars may not 
see you in time to stop.  Dog walkers and parents with strollers 
are unable to get out of the way quickly enough.  Early on, he 
remembers feeling an occasional rush of horror that something 
might happen to him.
  "The biggest challenge is mental: You can't be fearful," 
Wheatcroft says.  "You have to just absolutely convince yourself 
that this is possible."
  Wheatcroft initially kept to safe spaces, like the distance 
between goal posts on a football pitch, but he eventually got 
bored of this.  When he ran on the street, he discovered that 
people don't generally get out of the way, expecting runners to 
dodge them.  So contrary to widely accepted notions of safe 
running, he decided to run on the side of the freeway, where 
there is a wide berth away from the cars and no human traffic.
  Over the last six years, Wheatcroft has evolved into a serious 
long-distance runner.  In 2014, he ran from Boston to New York, 
then completed the New York Marathon, covering a total of 240 
miles in nine days.  On May 1, he will begin a seven-day run in 
the Namibian desert for a 160-mile ultra-marathon.
  Technology Solutions
  There are currently no apps specifically designed for the blind 
running community.  When Wheatcroft began running in 2010, he 
relied on apps designed for sighted runners.  He started using 
Runkeeper several years ago, which allows him to map out a route, 
track his speed, and receive audio signals that inform him when 
he needs to turn left or right.  When Google Glass came out, he 
immediately saw its potential for blind runners.  But none of 
these technologies are perfectly suited to his needs.
  Wheatcroft is determined to create his own app.  While training 
for the Boston Marathon, Wheatcroft began searching for a 
technology partner to help him on his quest.  He decided to reach 
out to IBM, knowing that the Runkeeper app runs on the IBM Cloud.  
IBM invited him to London to visit the Bluemix Garage, its 
developer space, where he pitched the engineers there an idea for 
an app for visually impaired runners.  IBM quickly came on board, 
agreeing to create an app for him pro bono.
  As Wheatcroft describes his ideal app, he points out that he 
doesn't want the navigation to be too noisy.  The GPS systems 
he's used so far have had elaborate directions communicated in 
complete sentences; he'd prefer a series of little sounds.
  "We thought subtle beeps were far more immediate than hearing 
'left' and 'right'," he says.  "I don't want to be taken out of 
the social experience of the race."
  Wheatcroft also says that the GPS systems built into most 
consumer devices are only accurate to 10 or 20 meters.  "When 
you're running on an edge of a cliff, a difference of 10 meters 
is an issue," he points out.  IBM has outfitted this new app with 
a more advanced external GPS receiver that gives directions that 
are accurate to five meters.
  Wheatcroft piloted a version of the app at the Boston Marathon 
on Monday.  It was a good testing ground because the course is 
fairly simple with only two turns.  The app allowed him to focus 
on the race and gave him confidence that he was on the right 
path.  To gather even more feedback about the app, he will bring 
it with him to Namibia at the end of the month for a seven-day 
run in the desert, which will be rather more treacherous and 
require the device to have an extended battery life.
  "This is very much an iterative process," Wheatcroft explains, 
describing how he's tweaked the various audio feedback mechanisms 
to make them clearer.  "We wanted to create a minimum viable 
product in a week and then continue making changes as I take it 
on the road with me.  We test one thing at a time."
  While the app Wheatcroft has built with IBM is an improvement 
on the generic running apps on the market, he believes there is a 
lot more it should be able to do.  He wants the app to be able to 
explain what objects are directly in front of him and provide 
dynamic directions that respond to the immediate environment.  
This would require the app to be able to scan his surroundings 
and then have an artificial intelligence system, such as Watson, 
that would determine the best course.  He'd also like to create a 
belt that will vibrate so that he won't need to depend on the 
beeps from the phone.  He's currently working with developers at 
IBM to find ways of achieving these goals.
  He's also very keen on Google's Project Tango, a technology 
that will give mobile devices spatial vision using sensors, 
motion tracking, depth perception, and image processing.  Google 
is currently selling developer kits so that it can be tailored to 
a range of purposes, like helping customers navigate through a 
store.  But Wheatcroft believes that it could be game-changing 
for blind runners.
  Ultimately, he's hoping to create an app that will be widely 
and inexpensively available to the entire blind community.  While 
IBM holds the intellectual property surrounding this technology, 
a company spokesperson says it has no plans to monetize the app 
because it is such a specialized use case.
  "It's more of an exercise in exploring the limits of human 
computer interaction," the spokesperson explains.
  Meanwhile, Wheatcroft is very excited about the possibility of 
putting out an app that will work on any iPhone.
  "I don't particularly like using any device that is 
specifically made for the visually impaired because it's usually 
super expensive and super clunky," he says.  While Wheatcroft is 
testing the technology on his runs, a user doesn't have to be a 
runner to see a benefit from this app.
  "We're creating a core technology that allows you to navigate 
using beeps and haptic, which can then be applied so broadly to 
lots of situations," Wheatcroft says.  That means whether you're 
running marathons in Namibia or just finding your way around a 
store, Wheatcroft's app could vastly improve life for blind 
people everywhere.


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