Hearing the Way Forward: Exploring Ambient Navigational Awareness with Reduced Cognitive Load through Spatial Audio-AR

Notifications and alerts can both convey critical data needed to make decisions as we go about our day, and at the same time be completely ignored as a result of the overuse of these channels. Auditory notifications can be especially intrusive given their demand for synchronous attention. However, during some activities, such as navigation guidance via GPS, immediate information cues are necessary. In this case audio alerts and instructions are typically implemented as voice commands, but processing language requires significant cognitive resources and attention. In this study we report findings about the feasibility of a novel ambient pedestrian guidance system inspired by neuroscience. Results suggest that it is possible to communicate precise spatial actions without the intrusion of verbal turn-by-turn cues. We also share learnings from our use of low-fidelity prototyping to evaluate the novel audio-AR interaction.