I wouldn't call it superhuman, but it definitely improves it a lot. I think it's helped in general with my sense of direction, but it's a lot less noticeable in an unfamiliar place (if I'm not wearing it).

If I start in a familiar place, then go into somewhere unfamiliar, like a new building, my ability to keep track of cardinal directions is significantly better, which helps keep me oriented to e.g. find my way out of the building.

I was not good at sensing direction until I learned to fly. After I had been flying a year or two, my intuitive sense of direction on the ground became fairly keen, even when I moved to another state or even to Europe.

There are certain places that trip up my sense of direction, especially Spokane, WA. In that city, south feels west to me, and strongly so. Weird.

I have a really good sense of direction.

In the southern hemisphere.

When I travel in the US your "sun in the south at midday" _really_ messes things up.

And when I'm in London and there's no detectable angle to the sun through the clouds, and all medium distance travel happens on the underground, I'm even more completely lost. I have friends in Maida Vale, Edgeware Rd and Marylebone , and I _know_ they're all within walking distance, but there's no way I could dead reckon my way from one to the other. All I know is how to get from there right tube station exit to their houses or nearest pub/cafe...

I have what you might describe as a "spidey sense" about whether a photo depicting a North American coastal scene is on the Atlantic, the Pacific, or something else like Lake Erie. You might have this feeling also.

I suspect it comes from an innate, unconscious comprehension of the highlights and the shadows (since the sun will typically be in the south). And I don't mean the obvious shadows but even the subtle ones.

With practice and perhaps assistance, e.g. North Paw, one could learn to harness the association between light and direction anywhere, not just near huge bodies of water of known direction.

You should play some https://www.geoguessr.com/

Georainbolt is an absolute wizard at this.

In the age of people driving through no entry roads and dirt roads because Google Maps showed them that direction, any intuitive sense of direction and navigation is definitely superhuman in my books.

I haven't used a device like this, but I don't think this is exaggeration. It is well known in linguistics that speakers of languages that use absolute directions are better at determining where north is. People that use the chime feature on their watches to indicate every hour also tend to have a better sense of time. It is also a successful tool for people trying to lucid dream (the "reality checks" are similar in behavior). We also know that one can become better at spatial directions through practice, which is why it is "common" advice to drive around when moving to a new city without a GPS (until necessary). It helps build that mental map in your head (which often generalizes) and tells your brain to pay attention to other correlating features (e.g. I wouldn't be surprised if this North Paw experiment gave users better sense of time with respect to the sun).

It should be no surprise that as one becomes accustomed to one's own environment and the way they navigate it.

Though I think the cooler question is if we can build a phone/smart-watch app that can do this. Is there a way to vibrate the watch in a northernly direction or something like vibrating when the user turns north (deceptively tricky).

GPS in map rotating mode is terrible for spatial awareness. I always keep it in fixed north-upwards mode and I found it does wonders for both navigating streets quickly and for getting to know the layout of wider area.