RunPacer: A Smartwatch-Based Vibrotactile Feedback System for Symmetric Co-Running by Visually Impaired Individuals and Guides

TL;DR

RunPacer is a smartwatch-based vibrotactile system designed to help visually impaired runners maintain synchronized pacing with guides through real-time rhythmic feedback, reducing reliance on verbal cues or tethers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpersonal cadence alignment system using vibrotactile feedback, emphasizing shared rhythm coordination for visually impaired co-runners.

Findings

Enables intuitive and efficient pace synchronization

Reduces mental and physical effort in guide running

Provides a lightweight, non-visual assistive framework

Abstract

Visually impaired individuals often require a guide runner to safely participate in outdoor running. However, maintaining synchronized pacing with verbal cues or tethers can be mentally taxing and physically restrictive. Existing solutions primarily focus on navigation or obstacle avoidance but overlook the importance of real-time interpersonal rhythm coordination during running. We introduce RunPacer, a smartwatch-based vibrotactile feedback system that delivers synchronized rhythmic pulses to both runners. In contrast to conventional guide-running systems that rely heavily on continuous verbal communication or mechanical tethering, RunPacer emphasizes interpersonal cadence alignment as its core interaction model. By pre-setting a target step frequency or dynamically adapting to the guide's natural pace, the system ensures that both runners receive identical haptic cues, enabling them to maintain coordinated motion intuitively and efficiently. This poster presents the system architecture, positions it within prior research on haptic entrainment, and outlines the vision for future field deployment, including potential multimodal feedback extensions. RunPacer contributes a lightweight, socially cooperative, and non-visual assistive framework that reimagines co-running as a shared, embodied, and accessible experience.