SoundShift: Exploring Sound Manipulations for Accessible Mixed-Reality Awareness
Journal
Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS 2024
Start Page
116
End Page
132
ISBN (of the container)
9798400705830
Date Issued
2024-07
Author(s)
DOI
10.1145/3643834.3661556
Abstract
Mixed-reality (MR) soundscapes blend real-world sound with virtual audio from hearing devices, presenting intricate auditory information that is hard to discern and diferentiate. This is particularly challenging for blind or visually impaired individuals, who rely on sounds and descriptions in their everyday lives. To understand how complex audio information is consumed, we analyzed online forum posts within the blind community, identifying prevailing challenges, needs, and desired solutions. We synthesized the results and propose SoundShift for increasing MR sound awareness, which includes six sound manipulations: Transparency Shift, Envelope Shift, Position Shift, Style Shift, Time Shift, and Sound Append. To evaluate the efectiveness of SoundShift, we conducted a user study with 18 blind participants across three simulated MR scenarios, where participants identifed specifc sounds within intricate soundscapes. We found that SoundShift increased MR sound awareness and minimized cognitive load. Finally, we developed three real-world example applications to demonstrate the practicality of SoundShift.
Event(s)
2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS 2024
Subjects
accessibility
AR/VR
mixed reality
sound awareness
Publisher
ACM
Description
DIS'24: Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1~5 July, 2024.
Type
conference paper