XRA MEMBERS LEAD COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ON AUDIO CUES IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

On Thursday, September 22nd, the XR Association and XR Access held a 1.5-hour community discussion on audio cues in virtual environments. Industry experts discussed how lessons learned in the application of audio cues in 2D games can be applied to immersive experiences to benefit the blind and low vision communities. XR professionals Saqib Shaikh, Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft, Timm Stutts, Design Director of Interactive Experiences at Cognixion, and Robert Ridahlagh, Principal Technical Audio Specialist at Microsoft gave presentations.

Shaikh used the example of the Seeing AI app he and his team created with LIDAR to help blind people navigate the world around them. Stutts shared his work with helping people with cerebral palsy or other sever motor disabilities regain movement. Finally, Robert shared knowledge from his decades of experience in the audio cues design field and highlighted the importance of using spatial audio to give users the ability to place themselves in a virtual environment.

Learn more by watching the recording.