Marcelo Herrera Martinez

57191204391

Publications - 2

Current use and future perspectives of spatial audio technologies in electronic travel aids

Publication Name: Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

Publication Date: 2018-01-01

Volume: 2018

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Electronic travel aids (ETAs) have been in focus since technology allowed designing relatively small, light, and mobile devices for assisting the visually impaired. Since visually impaired persons rely on spatial audio cues as their primary sense of orientation, providing an accurate virtual auditory representation of the environment is essential. This paper gives an overview of the current state of spatial audio technologies that can be incorporated in ETAs, with a focus on user requirements. Most currently available ETAs either fail to address user requirements or underestimate the potential of spatial sound itself, which may explain, among other reasons, why no single ETA has gained a widespread acceptance in the blind community.We believe there is ample space for applying the technologies presented in this paper, with the aim of progressively bridging the gap between accessibility and accuracy of spatial audio in ETAs.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1155/2018/3918284

Usability and effectiveness of auditory sensory substitution models for the visually impaired

Publication Name: 142nd Audio Engineering Society International Convention 2017 AES 2017

Publication Date: 2017-01-01

Volume: Unknown

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

This paper focuses on auditory sensory substitution for providing visually impaired users with suitable information in both static scene recognition and dynamic obstacle avoidance. We introduce three different sonification models together with three temporal presentation schemes, i.e. ways of temporally organizing the sonic events in order to provide suitable information. Following an overview of the motivation and challenges behind each of the solutions, we describe their implementation and an evaluation of their relative strengths and weaknesses based on a set of experiments conducted in a virtual environment.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: DOI not available