From The Field: Glide's Latest Testing in Seattle and The UK!

Amos Miller here, Founder and CEO of Glidance. May has been an incredibly exciting month of product development and testing for us at Glidance, and I'd love to share both the progress and clarity we’ve achieved coming out of it!

First, make sure to check out our latest video - recorded live from Glide's field testing this month in Seattle, Washington, and the UK!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5vp8H7UeJY

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Gliding Towards “Freestyle Navigation”

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As we often discuss with our community, the first major milestone on Glide’s journey is to ensure that Glide can indeed serve as a viable primary mobility aid.

Internally, we define this north star metric as “the moment you can comfortably leave your current mobility aid behind”. Why is this bar so important to us? It will be the first time in history that we have another viable primary option for independent mobility alongside the cane or the guide dog.

To achieve this, our team is focused on what we’ve been referring to as Glide’s “Freestyle Navigation”. Distinct from Directed Navigation, where Glide is guiding you point to point on a route, in Freestyle Navigation Mode you are in charge of the route, and use Glide to maintain a safe line of travel, initiate turns, and locate and approach common line of sight targets in indoor and outdoor spaces such as sidewalks, parks, stores, airports, transportation hubs and more. Once we master Freestyle Navigation, the sky is the limit for how we can refine and expand Glide’s capabilities over time.

Since we locked down the hardware redesign for our Alpha 2.0 devices, Glide’s software is taking flight towards that Freestyle Navigation mode. I couldn’t be more excited about the progress we are making, and my own experiences with starting to use Glide as my primary mobility aid.

For many months now, Glide has done a fantastic job of keeping me safe in crowded spaces with people and obstacles. Its baseline obstacle avoidance is feeling solid. Yet without being trained to maintain a line, I would often find myself losing orientation and unintentionally veering off.

Two weeks ago, we updated the software to integrate line maintenance and clear turn initiation through handle buttons and body position, and it made an unreal difference. I was able to navigate a convention center in Boston, walk a large hardware store, and shop at a supermarket - all with a team member in tail, but walking for hours without a sighted guide. I have also walked down the sidewalk along the main stretch of shops near my home with confidence, literally gliding.

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Take a few minutes to watch this video which shows the team testing Glide’s latest capabilities – but here’s what’s happening under the hood:

1. We have deployed our new path planner, which enables Glide to maintain a more purposeful line on pathways that have clear boundaries, such as aisles in a store or hallways in an office. When an object is in the way, Glide will autonomously avoid the object and then return to the original line. There is still plenty of refining to be done here, but it’s looking very promising.
   
2. Glide’s drop-off detection has been activated and is in early testing and tuning, enabling it to recognize and avoid curbs on sidewalks, similar to how Glide avoids obstacles.
   
3. We have integrated the buttons in the handle and are exploring different approaches for steering to initiate a turn. The model we are experimenting with is that left and right button presses initiate 90 degree turns, and a press on the middle button lets you direct glide in the direction you want to go. We will be seeking your feedback on these approaches as we move into Beta testing.

We are now focusing on refining Glide’s understanding and handling of different spaces. For example, at present Glide predominantly responds to physical things like walls, people and furniture. We have collected a lot of street data, and will soon be updating Glide’s AI models to detect walkable paths in a variety of spaces like parks and road crossings where the delineation of the path is more visual than physical. Furthermore, we are working on several additional core capabilities that will complete Freestyle Navigation, in particular target detection and overhead obstacle avoidance.

These changes are starting to bring the magic of Glide to life, and I am excited to share these developments with you. I look forward to giving our community the opportunity to experience them as we continue rolling them out at our Demo Days, conferences, and upcoming Beta testing!

Thanks again for being part of this incredible journey!

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