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Interactive exploration of city maps with auditory torches

Published: 28 April 2007 Publication History

Abstract

City maps are an important means to get an impression of the structure of cities. They represent visual abstraction of urban areas with different geographic entities, their locations, and spatial relations. However, this information is not sufficiently accessible today to blind and visually impaired people. To provide a non-visual access to map information, we developed an interactive auditory city map, which uses 3D non-speech sound to convey the position, shape, and type of geographic objects. For the interactive exploration of the auditory map, we designed a virtual walk-through. This allows the user to gain an overview of an area. To be able to focus on certain regions of the map, we equip the user with an auditory torch. With the auditory torch users can change the number of displayed objects in a self directed way. To further aid in getting a global idea of the displayed area we additionally introduce a bird's eye view on the auditory map. Our evaluation shows that our approaches enable the user to gain an understanding of the explored environment.

References

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Iglesias, R., Casado, S., Gutierrez, T., Barbero, J., Avizzano, C., Marcheschi, S., and Bergamasco, M, Computer graphics access for blind people through a haptic and audio virtual environment. In Proc. HAVE 2004, 13--18.
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Zhao, H., Smith, B. K., Norman, K., Plaisant, C., and Shneiderman, B., Interactive sonification of choropleth maps. IEEE MultiMedia, 12(2), 2005, 26--35.
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Heuten, W., Wichmann, D., and Boll, S., Interactive 3D Sonification for the Exploration of City Maps. In Proc. NordiCHI 2006, 155--164.
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Brazil, E., and Fernström, M., Investigating concurrent auditory icon recognition. In Proc. ICAD 2006, 51--58.
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Cited By

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  • (2024)Mapable: Accessible Web-Based Indoor Maps for People with Diverse Interaction and Information NeedsUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-60881-0_7(100-111)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
  • (2022)Implementing Ability-Based Design: A Systematic Approach to Conceptual User ModelingACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/355164615:4(1-26)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
  • (2022)Impact of Online Learning in the Context of COVID-19 on Undergraduates with Disabilities and Mental Health ConcernsACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/353851415:4(1-27)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
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cover image ACM Conferences
CHI EA '07: CHI '07 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 2007
1286 pages
ISBN:9781595936424
DOI:10.1145/1240866
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 28 April 2007

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Author Tags

  1. 3D sound
  2. auditory display
  3. city maps
  4. exploration
  5. interaction techniques
  6. orientation
  7. sonification

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CHI EA '07 Paper Acceptance Rate 212 of 582 submissions, 36%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Mapable: Accessible Web-Based Indoor Maps for People with Diverse Interaction and Information NeedsUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-60881-0_7(100-111)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
  • (2022)Implementing Ability-Based Design: A Systematic Approach to Conceptual User ModelingACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/355164615:4(1-26)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
  • (2022)Impact of Online Learning in the Context of COVID-19 on Undergraduates with Disabilities and Mental Health ConcernsACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/353851415:4(1-27)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
  • (2022)The Global Care Ecosystems of 3D Printed Assistive DevicesACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/353767615:4(1-29)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
  • (2022)Planning Your Journey in Audio: Design and Evaluation of Auditory Route OverviewsACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/353152915:4(1-48)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
  • (2020)Tabletop virtual hapticsProceedings of the 13th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments10.1145/3389189.3389194(1-10)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2020
  • (2020)Accessible Spatial Audio Interfaces: A Pilot Study into Screen Readers with Concurrent SpeechExtended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3334480.3381440(1-6)Online publication date: 25-Apr-2020
  • (2019)Interactive sonification of images in serious games as an education aid for visually impaired childrenBritish Journal of Educational Technology10.1111/bjet.1285251:2(473-497)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2019
  • (2017)Identifying Sound Cues of the Outdoor Environment by Blind People to Represent Landmarks on Audio-Tactile MapsUniversal Access in Human–Computer Interaction. Human and Technological Environments10.1007/978-3-319-58700-4_23(279-290)Online publication date: 17-May-2017
  • (2017)Accessible Interactive Maps for Visually Impaired UsersMobility of Visually Impaired People10.1007/978-3-319-54446-5_17(537-584)Online publication date: 22-Aug-2017
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