--- title: What to Know About the Seiichi Miyake Google Doodle description: The Google Doodle honors Seiichi Miyake for making the world a more accessible place with tactile pavement. Here's what to know about him. canonical: https://time.com/5553290/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-18T13:14:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:09.278Z og:title: Today's Google Doodle Was Under Your Feet This Whole Time og:description: You might have missed this ingenious invention right beneath your nose og:url: https://time.com/5553290/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8adefd81ff9242cd/698946d7656a3f43a8bd6caa/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle.jpeg?branch=production&width=981&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 981 og:image:height: 552 og:image:alt: seiichi-miyake-Google-Doodle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Today's Google Doodle Was Under Your Feet This Whole Time twitter:description: You might have missed this ingenious invention right beneath your nose twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8adefd81ff9242cd/698946d7656a3f43a8bd6caa/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle.jpeg?branch=production&width=981&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Google Doodle Honoring Seiichi Miyake Will Make You Think About What's Under Your Feet > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Mar 18, 2019 1:14 PM UTC  by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Mar 18, 2019 1:14 PM UTC The latest brightly colorful [Google Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles) might make you appreciate what’s beneath your feet for a change. The latest way Google has enlivened [the search page](http://time.com/5549574/google-doodle-world-wide-web/) is by giving props to the globally influential Japanese inventor [Seiichi Miyake](https://www.cnet.com/news/google-doodle-pays-tribute-to-japanese-inventor-seiichi-miyake/), a man who changed mobility as we know it when he made the world a more accessible place by creating tactile pavement. The [late innovator](http://time.com/5549574/google-doodle-world-wide-web/) created the canary yellow so-called “braille blocks,” or Tenji blocks, to line the roads with cleverly designed slabs that benefit people on the street who are [blind](http://time.com/5552730/thomas-panek-blind-nyc-half-marathon-dogs/) or have visual impairments. > [](https://twitter.com/GoogleDoodles/status/1107522795876114432) The idea was simple but genius: let the bumpy street be your guide. The raised bumps, which you can feel through your shoes or with a walking cane, were a language of their own. The textured design usually maps out as follows: A straight bar helps direct people toward safe zones, while elevated domes warn that there’s treacherous traffic to avoid. The project was personal for Miyake. It all began when he started working on the design out of pocket to simplify getting around for his friend who was losing his sight back in the ’60s, [Google’s Doodle blog tells us](https://www.google.com/doodles).  Google honors Seiichi Miyake with colorful Google Doodle Google And to make maneuvering around public spaces better for everybody, the first tactile pavement popped up in 1965 in Japan, and then in 1967 near the Okayama School for the Blind in Okayma City. Tokyo and Osaka followed suit in subsequent years as Japan really ran with the modification, even going so far as to require that train stations to roll it out on platforms. But it wasn’t until the ’90s that it cracked the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Seiichi’s innovation is so ubiquitous today that you might have traversed along a Miyake innovation today without knowing it. In the U.K. [different bright colors](https://www.rnib.org.uk/rnibconnect/welfare-and-money/tom-scott-tactile-paving) can help people who have some sight, like Miyake’s pal. And in [Scotland](http://www.disabilityscot.org.uk/news/tactile-paving/), they use corduroy tactile paving to tell pedestrians of potential dangers or when they’re reaching a ramp. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5553290/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5553290/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle/"},"headline":"The Google Doodle Honoring Seiichi Miyake Will Make You Think About What's Under Your Feet","datePublished":"2019-03-18T13:14:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:09.278Z","description":"You might have missed this ingenious invention right beneath your nose","url":"https://time.com/5553290/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","History","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8adefd81ff9242cd/698946d7656a3f43a8bd6caa/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8adefd81ff9242cd/698946d7656a3f43a8bd6caa/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"seiichi-miyake-Google-Doodle","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5553290/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle/","name":"The Google Doodle Honoring Seiichi Miyake Will Make You Think About What's Under Your Feet"}}]}] ```