Three-Dimensional Audio Interfaces for the Blind and Visually Impaired

The aim of the project is to develop a highly effective acoustic user interface for visually impaired and blind people. To improve the usability over commonly used "screen readers", 3-dimensional sound simulation is employed to simulate surrounding acoustic rooms via headphones. To create those virtual rooms, the Ambisonic approach was chosen and will be implemented on the TI DSP Evaluation Module. The project will result in a test system which is designed to replace an operating-systems desktop based on audio cues only. Similar to the graphical desktops, the acoustic rooms can contain icons which result in actions if clicked on. This might cause a program to start or open a text file. User are able to navigate in the environment with a joystick, they can "go" from one room to another, where the room acoustic differs among the rooms and is an additional information for the user. For visually impaired and blind people, this might be a remarkable improvement in computer access which is important to empower them for equal participation in the labor market. not assigned KP: ISIS project (Integration, Service, Information and Education), Austrian Bundessozialamt