Cue-preserving auralisations for blind exploration of virtual indoor environments

This paper investigates the prerequisites to creating auralisations that preserve auditory cues used by blind individuals during indoor navigation. It is part of a research project on the design of assistive technologies for exploring places prior to navigation. The investigation starts by listing the type of information used by blind individuals during navigation (room size, distance to walls, etc.) and by discussing the auditory cues they rely on to access those information. It then proceeds to characterise how various auralisation workflows can be used to capture or simulate and then present these cues to users. The listing is based on a literature review complemented with interviews with seven early and late blind participants. The characterisation is based on informal evaluations with those participants exploring various small and large-scale auralisation scenarios.