Google is testing a new app that will allow blind people to run on their own without a guide dog or human assistant. Project Guideline uses a phone's camera to track a guideline on a course and then sends audio cues to the user via bone-conducting headphones. If the runner strays too far from the center, the sound will get louder on whichever side they're favoring. Still in the prototype phase, Project Guideline was developed at a Google hackathon last year when a blind runner asked developers to design a program that would allow him to jog independently. The app uses a phone's camera to track a painted line and then sends audio cues via bone-conducting headphones if a runner strays too far to the left or right Thomas Panek, CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, began losing his vision when he was just 8 years old and was legally blind by the time he was a teenager.

Google is testing an artificial intelligence system designed to help blind and vision-impaired people to run races by themselves. Project Guideline, which is an early-phase research program, is an attempt to give those people more independence. They wouldn't necessarily need to rely on a tethered human guide or a guide dog to help them around a course. To use the system, a runner attaches an Android phone to a Google-designed harness that goes around their waist, according to VentureBeat. A Project Guideline app can use the phone's camera to track a guideline that's been laid down on a course. The app then sends audio cues to bone-conducting headphones when a runner veers away from the line -- the sound will get louder in one ear the further they stray to the side.