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Satellite navigation technology combined with MP3 players could help help people find their way around cities.

Computer scientists at Swansea University are researching ways of using GPS satellite navigation technology combined with music playing devices such as MP3 players to help people find their way around cities.

Users can programme a destination into a handheld device, and then listen to their usual music through headphones as they make their way towards the goal. If the user is heading in the right direction, the music is clear and strong through both headphones.

But if the user needs to change direction, the balance changes, with clarity and volume shifting to the left or right ear according to the direction to be taken.

A prototype of the system was developed several years ago by Dr Matt Jones, a Senior Lecturer in Swansea University's Department of Computer Science, while he was working at a university in New Zealand. Now Dr Jones is developing the technology further to enable users to make better use of the system, and in new ways.

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