Wayfinding without vision: Learning real and virtual environments using dynamically-updated verbal descriptions
Citation:
Giudice, N.A. (2006). Wayfinding without vision: Learning real and virtual environments using dynamically-updated verbal descriptions. Conference on Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impairment. July, Kufstein, Austria.
Abstract:
This paper describes the details and rationale for a dynamically-updated, context-sensitive verbal interface, which has been developed to support learning and wayfinding of indoor environments. The purpose of this interface is to serve as a non-visual substitute for apprehending critical navigational information about the environment and facilitating efficient travel by blind navigators. The efficacy of this interface in supporting accurate environmental learning and wayfinding of real and virtual environments was demonstrated with blind and low-vision participants in two experiments. In both studies, participants were able to effectively use the verbal interface to freely explore novel environments and built up a cognitive map which supported subsequent wayfinding tasks. The results of these studies demonstrate that blind navigation is not solely based on route knowledge, as has been argued in the literature. The findings also help to guide future design specifications for speech-based navigation technology.
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Comments
Aside from my dissertation,
Aside from my dissertation, this paper is the first to describe the use of dynamically-updated verbal descriptions by blind people to support complex spatial tasks in both real and virtual environments. Of note, performance is similar between groups, a result that supports my long-standing argument that challenges to blind navigation are related to lack of information access rather than lack of visual access to the environment. The paper also gives a good description of the verbal protocol underlying the dynamically-updated geometric descriptions used in a number of subsequent papers.