Sound of Vision - Spatial Audio Output and Sonification Approaches Michal Bujacz 1( ✉ ) , Karol Kropidlowski 1 , Gabriel Ivanica 2 , Alin Moldoveanu 2 , Charalampos Saitis 3 , Adam Csapo 4 , György Wersenyi 4 , Simone Spagnol 5 , Omar I. Johannesson 5 , Runar Unnthorsson 5 , Mikolai Rotnicki 6 , and Piotr Witek 6 1 Institute of Electronics, Lodz University of Technology, Łódź, Poland michal.bujacz@p.lodz.pl 2 University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania 3 ISI Foundation, Turin, Italy 4 Széchenyi István University, Győr, Hungary 5 University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland 6 Fundacja Instytut Rozwoju Regionalnego, Krakow, Poland Abstract. The paper summarizes a number of audio-related studies conducted by the Sound of Vision consortium, which focuses on the construction of a new prototype electronic travel aid for the blind. Different solutions for spatial audio were compared by testing sound localization accuracy in a number of setups, comparing plain stereo panning with generic and individual HRTFs, as well as testing different types of stereo headphones vs custom designed quadrophonic proximaural headphones. A number of proposed sonification approaches were tested by sighted and blind volunteers for accuracy and efficiency in representing simple virtual environments. Keywords: Electronic travel aid · Spatial audio · HRTF · HRIR · Sonification · Sound model · Sound synthesis 1 Introduction With the XXI century advances in technology, such as embedded devices capable of real time image and audio processing, the possibilities of designing an electronic travel aid for the blind are greater than ever [1]. The main goal of the “Sound of Vision: natural sense of vision through acoustics and haptics” research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 framework is to construct and test a wearable device that would convey an auditory and haptic representation of the surrounding envi‐ ronment to a visually impaired person. This paper presents some of the first year’s results of the project in terms of audio-related research, especially spatial audio solutions and sonification models. The overall concept of the Sound of Vision system is creation of an electronic aid for local navigation and obstacle avoidance, similar to a previous Naviton project [2]. The primary method of the environment sensing is stereovision (with possible data fusion from other sensors, e.g. time of flight or accelerometers) [3, 4]. The reconstructed © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 K. Miesenberger et al. (Eds.): ICCHP 2016, Part II, LNCS 9759, pp. 202–209, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41267-2_28