The building I work in has very soft lighting and perfectly flat, matt walls painted in pastel shades. This means that the walls are almost impossible to focus on particularly when you are close to the walls and if you are, like me, long-sighted (hyperopia).

The logical answer to this is to attach mini laser pointers to the arms of my glasses, so that I at least have little red dots on the walls to focus on.
-- hippo, Jul 25 2005

Why do you need to focus on the walls?
-- DrCurry, Jul 25 2005


So I don't crash into them
-- hippo, Jul 25 2005


Isn't there an edge with the floor at the bottom that you can use for navigation purposes? (Having eyesight that is bad at any distance, I generally run my fingers along corridor walls to avoid inadvertent collisions.)
-- DrCurry, Jul 25 2005


If the two lasers are aimed to converge at, say, a meter's distance, then, with a bit of practice, you shall be able to continuously judge your distance and closing rate upon those featureless walls.
-- bristolz, Jul 25 2005


Yes - sort of "Barnes Wallis" glasses.
-- hippo, Jul 25 2005


Just walk with your arms extended in front of you.
-- ldischler, Jul 25 2005


"Look into my eyes, the eyes, don't look around the eyes, HAH, YOU'RE BLIND NOW! Don't worry, it's only temporary... I think..."

Joking, but a bloke my mum used to work with became blind in one eye because of one of them little laser pointers, so you might have to be a bit careful.
-- froglet, Jul 25 2005


I knew it wouldn't take long for someone to spot the Health & Safety aspect to this idea.
-- hippo, Jul 25 2005


"Sharks. With frikkin' laser beam glasses mounted on their heads."
-- normzone, Jul 25 2005


I think the bible frowns on this or at least on the terminator's solution: "...first take the beam out of your own eye..."
-- FarmerJohn, Jul 25 2005


You could point the beam at people and watch them dive from the line-of-sight of a nonexistant assassin.
-- pooduck, Jul 26 2005


Bristolz's anno makes a good suggestion for using two lasers.

A few years ago I read about a three-laser height indicator for helicopters flying nap-of-the-earth. Two lasers were mounted at the rear of the aircraft, and the single one at the front. They projected a three-dot arrowhead on the terrain in front of the aircraft, which automatically indicated an up-arrow or down-arrow as required. Some variation of that pattern might be be easier to use than focussing on an individual dot.

An alternative to the original idea is to detect the walls with sonar. Your ears can't pick up the echo of your steps on a office carpet. Singing or muttering continuously should give you some hearable echoes. Some clattery jewelry or a fool's hat might work, too. Some clown shoes have bells on them, and sound quite musical. A small, yapping dog could be carried, or maybe an angry rattlesnake. A parrot could ride on your shoulder, squawking, but that might not be appropriate for the office.
-- baconbrain, Jul 26 2005


[baconbrain] That's a good idea - I'll just wander around at work muttering to myself.
-- hippo, Jul 26 2005



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