Audomni: Super-Scale Sensory Supplementation to Increase the Mobility of Blind and Low-Vision Individuals-A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVE

Blindness and low vision have severe effects on individuals' quality of life and socioeconomic cost; a main contributor of which is a prevalent and acutely decreased mobility level. To alleviate this, numerous technological solutions have been proposed in the last 70 years; however, none has become widespread.

METHOD

In this paper, we introduce the vision-to-audio, super-scale sensory substitution/supplementation device Audomni; we address the field-encompassing issues of ill-motivated and overabundant test methodologies and metrics; and we utilize our proposed Desire of Use model to evaluate proposed pilot user tests, their results, and Audomni itself.

RESULTS

Audomni holds a spatial resolution of 80 x 60 pixels at ~1.2° angular resolution and close to real-time temporal resolution, outdoor-viable technology, and several novel differentiation methods. The tests indicated that Audomni has a low learning curve, and several key mobility subtasks were accomplished; however, the tests would benefit from higher real-life motivation and data collection affordability.

CONCLUSION

Audomni shows promise to be a viable mobility device - with some addressable issues. Employing Desire of Use to design future tests should provide both high real-life motivation and relevance to them.

SIGNIFICANCE

As far as we know, Audomni features the greatest information conveyance rate in the field, yet seems to offer comprehensible and fairly intuitive sonification; this work is also the first to utilize Desire of Use as a tool to evaluate user tests, a device, and to lay out an overarching project aim.