Virtual Worlds Beyond Sight: Designing and Evaluating an Audio-Haptic System for Non-Visual VR Exploration

Contemporary research in Virtual Reality for users who are visually impaired often employs navigation and interaction modalities that are either non-conventional, constrained by physical spaces, or both. We designed and examined a hapto-acoustic VR system that mitigates this by enabling non-visual exploration of large virtual environments using white cane simulation and walk-in place locomotion. The system features a complex urban cityscape incorporating a physical cane prototype coupled with a virtual cane for rendering surface textures, and an omnidirectional slide mill for navigation. In addition, spatialized audio is rendered based on the progression of sound through the geometry around the user. A study involving twenty sighted participants evaluated the system through three formative tasks while blindfolded to simulate absolute blindness. Participants were highly successful in completing all the tasks while effectively navigating through the environment. Our work highlights the potential for accessible, non-visual VR experiences, achievable even with minimal training and little prior exposure to VR.