Interactive 3D sonification for the exploration of city maps

Blind or visually impaired people usually do not leave their homes without any assistance, in order to visit unknown cities or places. One reason for this dilemma is, that it is hardly possible for them to gain a non-visual overview about the new place, its landmarks and geographic entities already at home. Sighted people can use a printed or digital map to perform this task. Existing haptic and acoustic approaches today do not provide an economic way to mediate the understanding of a map and relations between objects like distance, direction, and object size. We are providing an interactive three-dimensional sonification interface to explore city maps. A blind person can build a mental model of an area's structure by virtually exploring an auditory map at home. Geographic objects and landmarks are presented by sound areas, which are placed within a sound room. Each type of object is associated with a different sound and can therefore be identified. By investigating the auditory map, the user perceives an idea of the various objects, their directions and relative distances. First user tests show, that users are able to reproduce a sonified city map, which comes close to the original visual city map. With our approach exploring a map with non-speech sound areas provide a new user interface metaphor that offers its potential not only for blind and visually impaired persons but also to applications for sighted persons.