Binaural Listening with Head Rotation Helps Persons with Blindness Perceive Narrow Obstacles

Takahiro Miura (), Naoyuki Okochi, Junya Suzuki and Tohru Ifukube
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Takahiro Miura: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Kashiwa 277-0882, Japan
Naoyuki Okochi: Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
Junya Suzuki: Sony Corporation, Tokyo 141-8610, Japan
Tohru Ifukube: Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Orientation and mobility (O&M) are important abilities that people with visual impairments use in their independent performance of daily activities. In orientation, people with total blindness pinpoint nonsounding objects and sounding objects. The ability to perceive nonsounding objects is called obstacle sense , wherein people with blindness recognize the various characteristics of an obstacle using acoustic cues. Although body movement and listening style may enhance the sensing of obstacles, experimental studies on this topic are lacking. Elucidating their contributions to obstacle sense may lead to the further systematization of techniques of O&M training. This study sheds light on the contribution of head rotation and binaural hearing to obstacle sense among people with blindness. We conducted an experiment on the perceived presence and distance of nonsounding obstacles, which varied width and distance, for participants with blindness under the conditions of binaural or monaural hearing, with or without head rotation. The results indicated that head rotation and binaural listening can enhance the localization of nonsounding obstacles. Further, when people with blindness are unable to perform head rotation or use binaural hearing, their judgment can become biased in favor of the presence of an obstacle due to risk avoidance.

Keywords: visual impairment; obstacle sense; binaural listening; head rotation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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