New 'smart' walking stick has sat-nav to guide people home

A 'smart' walking stick designed in Japan has built in GPS navigation to help guide old people home.

The stick has an easy-to-read LED screen which shows arrows in the direction the user needs to walk.

It also features a heart rate monitor - in a thumb reader on top - and transmits heart rate data to health workers and relatives remotely.

A working version of the stick was shown off by maker Fujitsu at this week's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

No price was confirmed, but the device could be a hit in Fujitsu's native Japan, which has a large population of older people.

Rik Henderson of gadget site Pocket-Lint said, "Fujitsu dedicated part of its Mobile World Congress 2013 stand in Barcelona to future technologies. Clearly, it is still some way off release, but we were assured that it would be a full consumer product eventually. It will also be able to read temperature and humidity."
"Naturally, it's far too early in the development life to mull over price, but if the company manages to keep it reasonably affordable, we could see the GPS walking stick becoming a very useful form of technology in years to come."

The stick works by 'learning' a set route determined by a computer, and directs its owner home accordingly.

It can also transmit the location of its owner to relatives and health workers.