On-Body Circuits Create New Sense Organ

destinyland writes "In 'My New Sense Organ,' a science writer tests 'a new sense' — the ability to always know true north — by strapping a circuit board to her ankle. It's connected to an electronic compass and an ankle band with eight skin buzzers. The result? 'I had wrong assumptions I didn't know about ... I returned home to Washington DC to find that, far worse than my old haunt San Francisco, my mental map of DC swapped north for west. I started getting more lost than ever as the two spatial concepts of DC did battle in my head.' The device also detects 'the specific places where infrastructure interferes with the earth's magnetic fields.'

Comments

How is this different from holding a Compass?

[popo]

Why is this a different "sense" organ? Because it uses the sense of "touch"?

Is a handheld compass also an "on-body" circuit? How about a handheld electronic compass that beeps when you're pointing north?

This story is a nothingburger. The concept here appears to be "but this was strapped to the writers' ankle". As if the pseudo-prosthetic reference has relevance here. The writer would have experienced the same revelations of orientation with dashboard GPS.