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Updated: Aug 15, 2025

Development of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the Blind
Published on: March 27, 2013
Auditory orientation and distance estimation of sighted humans using virtual echolocation with artificial and
Henning Steffens1, Michael Schutte1, Stephan D Ewert1
1Medizinische Physik and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 26111, Germany henning.steffens1@uni-oldenburg.de, michael.schutte@uiae.at, stephan.ewert@uni-oldenburg.de.
Abstract:
Active echolocation of sighted humans using predefined synthetic and self-emitted sounds, as habitually used by blind individuals, was investigated. Using virtual acoustics, distance estimation and directional localization of a wall in different rooms were assessed. A virtual source was attached to either the head or hand with realistic or increased source directivity. A control condition was tested with a virtual sound source located at the wall. Untrained echolocation performance comparable to performance in the control condition was achieved on an individual level. On average, the echolocation performance was considerably lower than in the control condition, however, it benefitted from increased directivity.
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