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Guide dogs get sat nav

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Vaughan | 14:42 UK time, Monday, 20 April 2009

According to Saturday's edition of The Sun newspaper, guide dogs are about to get satellite navigation technology. And no, it's not a joke.

Under the headline - and accompanied by a picture of the sat nav device with a speech bubble saying "DESTINATION BARKING" (do you get it?) - the story reveals that Jason Perkins, a product design student studying in Wales, has developed Peepo, a device that clips onto a guide dog's harness and vibrates on the left or right side to tell the handler in which direction to go in. Before setting off, the guide dog user speaks their destination into the sat nav's microphone, and the vibrating receiver is then programmed with the route.

Great things are being predicted for the Peepo, and it's already being lined up as one of the possible winners of this year's James Dyson Award for excellence in design, named after the guy who developed the bagless vacuum cleaner.

But what to do Ouch-reading guide dog users out there think? Does this sound like a new gizmo you'll rush out to purchase, or are you sceptical? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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