Most commuters keep their eyes down in the morning while traipsing through the gleaming corridors of London’s Euston Underground station. Their attention is focused on the feet, the coffee or, beyond that, the rigours of the day into which they hurtle. If any did manage to bravely look up, however, they’d catch a glimpse of a new addition to this, Britain’s sixth busiest railway station: a phalanx of tiny white boxes stuck fast to the ceiling, one every ten or so paces. These are Bluetooth beacons, transmitters able to provide a GPS lock-on to a phone or tablet even here, deep in London’s soil. Each one is able to produce a tiny miracle: the ability for a blind or partially sighted person to navigate the station’s warren of corridors with precision, without help, using nothing but a mobile phone.

It works eerily well. On a sweltering September afternoon, I’m told to put on a pair of glasses. They look like something designed by Jackson Pollock: chicly black-framed, lenses splattered with thousands of tiny droplets of paint swarmed around the centre. It’s possible to see through them, particularly at the periphery, but only in sketchy patches. This is what, I’m told, it is like to be visually impaired.

I’m handed a white cane and a pair of headphones. Through these, a calming voice asks for a destination station and, once selected, begins to issue brisk commands. “Turn right and walk forward”, she says. “Turn left and take the escalator.” The technology—designed by Wayfindr, a non-profit organisation seeking to create a standards for digital wayfinding and UsTwo, the Shoreditch-based game and app developer—tracks my location as I travel through the station via the ceiling-mounted beacons (whose batteries last for a year apiece).

Within five minutes I am at the platform, without having put a foot wrong.

Euston is the third station in which the Wayfindr technology has been trialled with volunteers in the UK (similar trials will take place in other global locations in the coming months). Some might see the technology as an unnecessary indulgence. After all, TFL already provides a service to partially sighted Londoners to help them get to their destination. Turn up at the ticket barrier at any London Underground station and tell a member of staff which station you’re trying to get to, and they will lead you to the right platform, put you on the right train, and call ahead to your destination so that another member of staff meets you at the other side. London is reportedly unique in providing this kind of service.

Yet, when in March 2014 the Royal National Society for the Blind (RNSB) polled young, partially-sighted Londoners about what they found most difficult when it came to navigating the capital, the response was unanimous. Having grown used to the independence that Google Maps has facilitated when above ground, interviewees reported that having to depend on others when going underground felt like a theft of freedom. “Moreover, lots of young people said that they were worried this this might compound some people’s viewpoint that disabled people find it difficult to do anything for themselves,” explains Katherine Payne, who helped organise the poll for the RNSB.

Not only that, the TFL's so-called "Turn Up and Go" system struggles during busy periods, according to Kevin Satizabal, a visually impaired Londoner from the RLSB who participated in the first trial of the software. “Sometimes you are asked to wait until a staff member becomes available while, at other times staff don’t arrive to meet you off your train. Wayfindr allows me to get on and off my train independently, and not have to wait for staff to become available. Also being able to be independent as a blind person gives me an immense sense of freedom, so the technology also has the power to boost confidence.”

The first trial, held at Pimlico station in early 2015, proved to be a great success. Every one of the 25 blind participants was able to navigate their way to the platform unaided, even when it was their first visit to the station. “I was astounded by Wayfindr’s accuracy,” says Satizabal. “I’d be given instructions like ‘Go down nine steps’ just as I approached the top of a staircase. The precision of the technology allowed me to navigate a station I’d never been to before stress free.”

For Kevin Dunning, director of operational support at London Underground, which, alongside Google’s charitable fund, Google.org, has helped to fund the project, Wayfindr will set the worldwide standard for audio navigation for people with a visual impairment. Still, the challenges involved are significant. “Tube stations vary greatly in their size with some stations, for example Canary Wharf, having large cavernous ticket halls,” he says. “This presents a challenge when identifying where to site the Bluetooth beacons so they can still transmit signals that will be picked up by smartphones and mobile devices. We also need to consider the best way to maintain large numbers of these beacons across the network.” Indeed, the London Underground is so deep in places that it is, according to Payne, one of the most hostile environments in the world for technology.

There are also complicated and often station-specific safety issues. Some stations boast curved platforms, which pose greater threats to safety. Even those that are straight can be packed with tourists and commuters, obstacles that the beacons are unable to detect. Despite the challenges, Dunning believes that the Euston trial showed the technology could be used at even larger and more complex stations. “We plan to undertake a final trial at a group of London Underground stations and, crucially, include train journeys between stations and involving interchanges,” he says. “This will help us to confirm whether it could work across the whole Tube network.”

Another long term hope for Wayfindr and its partners is that the technology will be able to be folded into the existing navigation apps used by so many of us. While the current trials use a bespoke app, the team is working to create an open standard that should work with Google Maps, Citymapper, and any other navigation app on the market. When this happens, the benefits won’t be limited to blind and partially sighted people, as anyone who has ever become lost while attempting to navigate the tortuous route from Monument to Embankment, or who has walked the wrong way down a platform at Victoria when trying to change lines can attest.

Simon Parkin is an award-winning writer and journalist from England and a regular contributor to the likes of The New Yorker, the Guardian, and Eurogamer. His latest book, Death by Video Game: Tales of obsession from the virtual frontline, was released last year. You can find him on Twitter at @simonparkin.