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Auditory display design for exploration in mobile audio-augmented reality

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Abstract

In this paper, we compare four different auditory displays in a mobile audio-augmented reality environment (a sound garden). The auditory displays varied in the use of non-speech audio, Earcons, as auditory landmarks and 3D audio spatialization, and the goal was to test the user experience of discovery in a purely exploratory environment that included multiple simultaneous sound sources. We present quantitative and qualitative results from an initial user study conducted in the Municipal Gardens of Funchal, Madeira. Results show that spatial audio together with Earcons allowed users to explore multiple simultaneous sources and had the added benefit of increasing the level of immersion in the experience. In addition, spatial audio encouraged a more exploratory and playful response to the environment. An analysis of the participants’ logged data suggested that the level of immersion can be related to increased instances of stopping and scanning the environment, which can be quantified in terms of walking speed and head movement.

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Notes

  1. http://code.google.com/p/mobile-trail-explorer/.

  2. http://www.qstarz.com/Products/GPS%20Products/BT-Q1000X-F.htm.

  3. http://code.google.com/p/jake-drivers/.

  4. Only data from within the proximity zone were considered, and data points while in the activation zone were excluded as we were only interested in user behaviour while exploring and not once they had reached the activation zone.

  5. Kurtosis is the name of a statistical measure used to describe the distribution of observed data around the mean. A normal distribution has a kurtosis 0, a peaked (tall and skinny) distribution has a positive or high kurtosis, and a flat distribution has a negative or low kurtosis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ken Browning Travelling Scholarship (University of Glasgow, UK), Nokia and EPSRC research grant EP/F023405 “Gaime”. We would like to express our gratitude to the members of the Madeira-ITI group at Madeira University who participated in this research project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Glasgow Interactive Systems Group, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

    Yolanda Vazquez-Alvarez & Stephen A. Brewster

  2. Madeira-ITI, University of Madeira, 9000-390, Funchal, Portugal

    Ian Oakley

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  1. Yolanda Vazquez-Alvarez
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  2. Ian Oakley
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  3. Stephen A. Brewster
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Correspondence to Yolanda Vazquez-Alvarez.

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Vazquez-Alvarez, Y., Oakley, I. & Brewster, S.A. Auditory display design for exploration in mobile audio-augmented reality. Pers Ubiquit Comput 16, 987–999 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0459-0

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