📍 The method of loci, on real streets

Walk the path.
Remember the list.

Locus Lane turns your notes into a memory palace you can walk through on real Street View, anywhere in the world, without having to be there.

Start your route → How it works
The technique

What is the method of loci?

The method of loci, also called a memory palace, is a memory technique that dates back to ancient Greece. Instead of memorizing a list directly, you picture a route you know well and leave each thing you want to remember at a specific spot along it. To recall them, you mentally walk the route and pick each one up in order. (Locus is Latin for "place.")

Why it works

🧠

Brains remember places

We evolved to remember where things are: routes, landmarks, which corner had the bakery. A term is hard to hold onto, but a place you know is not.

🔢

The route gives you order

You never have to remember what comes next. You just walk to the next spot, so lists, steps, and sequences stay in order.

🖼️

Places give you cues

Attaching a term to a vivid image at a real spot gives you something to find later, instead of rereading notes and hoping. Research on the method has repeatedly found it improves recall.

Example: three parts of a cell

Say your route is the walk from your front door to the bus stop.

  1. Front door → Nucleus. Behind the door is a giant control room barking orders. The nucleus holds the DNA and directs the cell.
  2. Mailbox → Mitochondria. A tiny power plant is humming inside the mailbox. Mitochondria make the cell's energy.
  3. Bus stop → Ribosome. Workers are assembling something on a bench at the stop. Ribosomes build proteins.

On test day, walk door, mailbox, bus stop in your head. Each spot brings back its term and its definition, in order.

Our version

A digital memory palace you can walk anywhere

Normally you need a route you know by heart, and you have to picture it in your head. Locus Lane builds the palace for you on Google Street View. Choose any route with Street View coverage, like your childhood neighborhood, your campus, or a city you once visited, and walk it on screen without being there in person.

Can't picture things in your mind? Some people can't form mental images at all (this is called aphantasia). Locus Lane puts the real view in front of you, so you look at the place instead of imagining it. We can't promise it works for everyone, but you don't need a strong mental picture to start.
How it works

Five steps from notes to memorized

  1. 1

    Upload or paste your list of terms Create tab

    Drop in a .txt or .md file, or paste your notes or vocab list.

  2. 2

    Split it into terms and definitions Create tab

    The AI pulls out each term and its definition. Edit, remove, or add your own.

  3. 3

    Pick a route that means something to you Create tab

    Search anywhere on the map, then click a start and an end. Anywhere with Street View works, and the route can be as long as you like.

  4. 4

    Place each term on a landmark you'll remember Place pins tab

    Move along the route in Street View and pin each term to a door, a statue, a corner shop, or anything that sticks in your mind.

  5. 5

    Memorize by rewalking the path Walk & memorize tab

    Walk the route pin by pin. Each pin starts as just a number: try to recall the term, reveal it, then reveal the definition.

Start your route →