Contribution
An Overview for Realizing an Acoustical Assistance System for Visually Impaired Climbers
* Presenting author
Abstract:
The eye is often described as the most important human sensory organ. For visually impaired people, this sense is partially or completely absent. An important goal for an inclusive society is to enable visually impaired people to participate in everyday life, such as work and sport. This is why assistance systems are being developed that use or enhance other senses. Technology makes this levelling possible and offers new potential. Climbing represents an excellent example of a manageable but nonetheless challenging hand-eye coordination problem. A visual sensor system is required to localize wall geometry and climbing holds. The most critical step is to present the data in an intuitive and comprehensive way using other senses. Taste and smell do not allow a complete representation of three-dimensional features. The sense of touch is important as soon as the hold is within reach. Spatial hearing offers great potential, but also many challenges, such as the simultaneous acoustic representation of the holds, their distance, and position. The aim of the presented system is to output a synthetically generated signal on headphones in such a way that a hold can be localized as if it were actually emitting a signal.