Wayfinding without visual cues
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The document summarizes a study that evaluated an interactive audio map system designed to help blind and visually impaired users navigate cities. The study tested whether ambient 3D sounds improved wayfinding performance compared to a version without such sounds. Results found that ambient sounds helped users achieve better wayfinding experiences and spatial knowledge acquisition as measured by higher scores and fewer wrong turns. The study demonstrated the potential for audio maps to allow blind users to independently plan routes online as sighted users do. However, the study was limited by an inability to collect demographic data from participants.
Wayfinding without visual cues
- 1. Wayfinding without Visual Cues: Evaluation of an Interactive Audio Map System Kyung Jin Hong
- 2. Introduction • Audio map – For blind and partially sighted users To explore the city before going outside – Enable users to focus on locomotion and potential hazards – Help users acquire spatial knowledge
- 3. Introduction • Evaluation – To find the most effective map – Estimate the components of the map • Simulated 3D sound, synthetic speech and sounds to represent steps, turns, collisions etc – Wayfinding challenges • The core function and the purpose of the map
- 4. Previous Work and its Influence • Spatial knowledge and wayfinding – Wayfinding • Goal-centered (requires destination) • Requires cognitive problem solving in distal space main purpose of map, keeping users on track – Spatial knowledge • Spatial sematic hierarchy (Kuipers) – Good descriptions are short • Informations should be trimmed according to landmarks, decision points, and change points
- 5. Previous Work and its Influence • Auditory displays – Techniques • Sonification(auditory icons, earcons, percussive) & Speech(spearcons) • Auditory icons: naturally occurring sounds • Earcons: musical motives (rhythmicized sequence of pitches) that can be grouped • Synthetic speech Needs precise balance between three
- 6. Previous Work and its Influence • Auditory displays – Auditory map system • The number of potential participants should be maximized • Supervision should not be required • Web distribution should be possible • Maps should be prepared before evaluations
- 7. Design • System design – Spatial knowledge and wayfinding • Audible feedback is given by slight changes through steps • Cardinal directions are used • Users can know where they are and can get the overview of the route by pressing space and return • Certain sound sources can be filtered • Designed as easy to learn as possible • Allows the user to explore any location of the planet
- 8. Design • System design – Auditory display • Mixing three sound effects – Auditory icons fade out when voice begin to speak – Auditory icons and earcons have completely different functions – Earcons occupy a very narrow band of frequency spectrum • Auditory icons – Articulatory directness • Earcons – Offer feedback – Convey information about the options
- 9. Design • Evaluation design • Wayfinding success – Keeping on track • Game aspect – With and with out 3D audio – Feedback from participants • Impact of auditory clues – Sonification index • Players’s experience of navigating the map – Wayfinding index Two items are inversely proportionate on intrinsic grounds
- 10. Design • Database design – Database is transmitted into tables • 10 columns enough recreate the journey – User, level, mode, step number, x, y, bearing, date and time, location, action • More columns of user’s feed back – Map doodles, route description, likert responses etc – All actual movements and most actions is visualized in color coding • Each colors of discs convey direction and speed of travel
- 11. Evaluation • Hypothesis – Based on the premise that ambient sounds can reduce cognitive processing cost improve performance in wayfinding • Not all data were fit to contribute to the formal evaluation
- 12. Results • Quantitative analysis – Wayfinding index • Reflected the player’s experience of navigating the map – Sonification index • Concerned the impact of auditory cues – Ambient sounds • Improved the users’ subjective wayfinding experience and sonification experience • Helped players to achieve higher coin scores and lower wrong turn scores
- 13. Results • Qualitative analysis – Doodles and routes drawn by participants demonstrate that they have acquired detailed route and survey knowledge – Example of two participants • Fully sighted and blind
- 14. Conclusion • Ambient 3D audio improves the chances of acquiring detailed spatial knowledge in absence of visual cues • Audio maps built from open source tools and community- created resources have potential to convey complex city maps blind and partially sighted people can look up routes and maps online before they go outside just like sighted people do • The demographic data of the participants would ensure the result of the research – But they couldn’t collect the data
- 15. Critique • Astonished by the idea of making a map for blind people – Map was a visual thing that blind people couldn’t use • I think it was a good idea to set the comparison group with full-sighted people – Shows how the map works well for the blinds
- 16. THANK YOU