In this work, we explored the potential of a technique known as "acoustic touch" to assist people who are blind in finding objects. This technique is an auditory sensory augmentation paradigm that uses smart glasses to sonify objects entering the device's field of view. We developed a wearable Foveated Audio Device (FAD) to study the efficacy and usability of using acoustic touch to search, memorise, and reach items. The study involved 14 participants, 7 blind/low vision and 7 sighted blindfolded participants. We compared the wearable device to two idealised conditions, a verbal clock face description and a sequential audio presentation through external speakers. We found that the wearable device can effectively aid the recognition and reaching of an object. We also observed that the device does not significantly increase the user's cognitive workload. These promising results suggest that acoustic touch can provide a wearable and effective method of sensory augmentation.

The datasets were collected at UTS Techlab. All files are in CSV format. Each row represents a participant's data, and each column represents the data category. The label B means the participant is within the blind/low vision group. The label S means the participant is within the sighted w/ blindfold group. I've attached an example figure for the result from the data.

The data files were processed using Matlab R2020a. The formatted data files can be imported into Excel, SPSS, and other software.