Associated with overlays are paths. Paths are routes from one point to another. They are typically made up of a series of waypoints traversed in a certain direction. For instance, a short path of interest in the vicinity of Arkenstone is the path from the bus stop on Java to Arkenstone. The first waypoint is the bus stop itself, the second is the corner of Java and Borregas, the third is the corner of Caspian Court and Borregas and the final point is Arkenstone itself.
Paths are aids to orientation.
A user who is interested in traveling to a new destination can use Atlas Speaks to find the destination. Next, they could find its distance to the closest point of interest in the user's overlays and explore different ways of travelling there. Questions like how close is it to different bus lines, subway stations and how much walking is involved can all be answered independently. Once a path is chosen, the important landmarks, intersections and turns for that path can be saved onto a tape recorder, Braille 'n Speak or hardcopy braille. The Atlas Speaks approach has some significant advantages in accessing map information compared to existing approaches.