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Conference Paper

Multimodal Exploration of Virtual Objects with a Spatialized Anchor Sound

Authors: Geronazzo, Michele; Bedin, Alberto; Brayda, Luca; Avanzini, Federico

AES Conference: 55th International Conference: Spatial Audio · Paper P-1 · August 2014

Abstract

A multimodal interactive system for audio-haptic integration is presented in this paper. Preliminary subjective tests with a virtual reality setup were conducted with the goal of interpreting cognitive mechanisms and improving performances in orientation & mobility protocols for visually impaired subjects, where spatial representations need to be developed using residual sensory channels. An object recognition experiment was performed in order to investigate the contribution of dynamic spatial audio cues when integrated with haptic feedback. Audio cues took the form of anchor sound delivered through headphones using customized Head-related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). This setup was employed in the exploration of simplified virtual audio-tactile environments. Overall results on recognition time reveal a relationship between anchor position and object shape. Moreover, a qualitative analysis of the exploration paths highlights behavioral changes between unimodal and multimodal conditions.

Details

Published in
AES Conference: 55th International Conference: Spatial Audio
Paper number
P-1
Publication date
August 6, 2014
Session subject
Posters
Affiliation
Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy; University of Padova, Padova, Italy (See document for exact affiliation information.)
Type
Conference Paper