Audio Augmented Reality – Navigation App based on landmarks and Audio commands only.

A tourist would like to explore a town with a bikesharing-service. He needs to find a available bike first, then unlock it and choose a goal. He also needs a navigation to the goal and finally has to return it. This process should be realized by an audio augmented reality smartphone app.

This speech based application should help to provide a more secure ride by bike. During the navigation a tourist gets landmark based audio announcements, based on GPS localisation. Without a display the audio messages have to be exact. So the research goal is to find out, when and where to place the announcements. Furthermore the content of these audio messages is to be determined. To answer this question the concept was validated by two usability tests. The first test was to find out, what users need for navigating by bike. In the second test a optimized prototype should confirm the results of the previous test.

In fact there are two types of landmarks: change of direction and confirmation. At both the user has to get an audio message about 20 meters in front of an action point. After direction changes the user needs to hear immediately how he should proceed. Landmarks help to create a three-dimensional audio experience, so that the user can find the way without a display. Most of the testers had a good feeling while handling the app. This application has big potentials but users have to learn how to use a audio augmented reality app first.