If it is not possible to use vision when navigating through one's surroundings, moving safely and effectively becomes much harder. In such cases, non-speech audio cues can serve as navigation beacons, as well as denote features in the environment relevant to the user. This paper outlines and summarizes the development and evaluation of a System for Wearable Audio Navigation (SWAN), including an overview of completed, ongoing, and future research relating to the sounds used, the human-system interaction, output hardware, divided attention, and task effects.
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