Abstract
When seated users of multimodal augmented reality (AR) systems attempt to navigate unfamiliar environments, they can become disoriented during their initial travel through a remote environment that is displayed for them via that AR display technology. Even when the multimodal displays provide mutually coherent visual, auditory, and vestibular cues to the movement of seated users through a remote environment (such as a maze), those users may make errors in judging their own orientation and position relative to their starting point, and also may have difficulty determining what moves to make in order to return themselves to their starting point. In a number of investigations using multimodal AR systems featuring realtime servocontrolled movement of seated users, the relative contribution of spatial auditory display technology was examined across a variety of spatial navigation scenarios. The results of those investigations have implications for the effective use of the auditory component of a multimodal AR system in applications supporting spatial navigation through a physical environment.
Highlights
Users of multimodal augmented reality (AR) systems can be given first-hand experiences of navigation through unfamiliar environments while they are seated comfortably in a fixed location, even though the AR display technology includes only a relatively small screen for delivering the visual component of the experience
Users receive sensory inputs that are associated with objects and events that are present and occur within their local physical environment, while they are presented with sensory inputs that depend upon computer-mediation
The grand questions that motivated the writing of the “Inner Navigation” book [5] were the same as those which motivated this paper: Why do we get lost and how do we find our way? These questions could be given more traction for advancing knowledge about spatial navigation if they were stated as empirical questions of what makes us get lost and what improves spatial navigation
Summary
Users of multimodal augmented reality (AR) systems can be given first-hand experiences of navigation through unfamiliar environments while they are seated comfortably in a fixed location, even though the AR display technology includes only a relatively small screen for delivering the visual component of the experience. When what is displayed reacts to small changes in a user’s spatial orientation in a natural manner, the virtual objects and events are experienced as if apprehended first-hand, which is the expected result given seamless superposition of virtual upon actual Such seamless superposition of virtual objects and events upon actual environments requires timely coupling of tracked user motion and displaying of virtual objects through computer-mediated modification of sensory inputs according to motions caused by a user’s motor commands (i.e., voluntary movements), completing a coherent experience. Small rolling of the listener’s head can aid in resolving above/below ambiguities [3] This active listening process is important in spatial orientation and navigation because environmental sounds can serve as stable landmarks that can keep individuals from losing their sense of direction, and they can keep them from “getting lost” in an unfamiliar environment. The following two sections of this paper discuss two fundamental factors in spatial orientation that provide the keys to successful spatial navigation by seated users of multimodal AR systems, the first being sensorimotor contingencies, and the second being the users sense of direction
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