Google Doodle Commemorates Those Bumps on the Edge of the Transit Platform

"Today's animated Doodle celebrates Japanese inventor Seiichi Miyake, whose desire to help a close friend turned into an innovation that drastically improved the way those who are visually impaired navigate public spaces around the globe," according to the website Google set up to explain the websites choices of doodles.

The improvement Miyake invented: those raised yellow dots, ubiquitous today on transit platforms all over the world. Miyake spent his own money to develop the idea, to help a visiually impaired friend.

"Aside from identifying tactile tiles via a support or white cane, individuals also do so with the help of guide dogs or feeling them through their shoes," explains Google.