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Explore Unfamiliar Environments with Virtual Reality Applications

Abstract:

To reduce the stress and anxiety that blind people experience when moving through an unfamiliar environment, a series of virtual and augmented reality applications have been developed at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid to allow these people to familiarize themselves with the new environment. This study measured the cognitive load of fourteen blind people navigating a test maze using augmented reality applications. An auditory task was added during traversal to determine the delayed recall achieved by the participants. The applications were designed with two cognitive interfaces that reported objects and structures in the environment as well as the location of the target point. The evidence supports a 4.3% reduction in cognitive load for participants using interface 2 compared to those using interface 1. The time taken to complete the maze was statistically significant when using the interface 2 application, with a p-value of 0.04. Success in completing the maze was 21.43% higher when participants used interface 2 compared to interface 1.