Audio Maze

We to developed an audio navigation system to lead a person through a virtual maze. For this I developed a sound and music system using Unity3D and FMOD that reacted to a player’s position and orientation in space in relationship to the maze and the goal. After a successful pilot study testing our initial implementation and whether people were able to (and enjoyed) navigating through the maze, we set out to improve the learnability of the interface. Additionally we adjusted our system to help us compare two different approaches to audio navigation and test how they affect spatial awareness as well as navigation efficiency. A system like this could be interesting as an audio game for people with visual impairments, but also useful in contexts where navigation is supposed to do more than merely bring a person efficiently from point A to point B. Our heavy reliance on GPS turn by turn based navigation greatly impacts our ability (and willingness) to explore, wander and develop an intuition for the cities and spaces we inhabit.

Collaborators: Paul Methfessel, Maximillian Stiede, Leon Bein.

Mentor: Julia von Thienen