Prototyping and evaluation of landcons: auditory objects that support wayfinding for blind travelers

Abstract

Sighted people use vision to quickly access a rich amount of information about their environment. Blind users are deprived of this information, which compromises their abilities both to understand their surroundings and to navigate within them. Alternative sensory information, such as sound or touch, is substituted for the missing stimulus [7]. This information supports navigation in the immediate vicinity, e.g., the location of obstacles and hazards, but does not provide the location of distant unique objects which sighted people often use as navigating landmarks. The opportunity exists to electronically augment a blind user's environment with information about distant landmarks, e.g., information that would allow a blind person to turn in a circle, listen to distant landmarks, and then proceed in a direction guided by a chosen landmark.