Audio Augmented Reality

The overlay of digital sound — synthesised speech, music, earcons, or spatialised audio cues — onto a user's perception of their real or virtual environment. Audio augmented reality can be head-worn (via open-ear or bone-conducting headphones) or environmental (via fixed speakers triggered by user location). For accessibility practice it is a key enabler of eyes-free navigation, museum and tourism guides for blind visitors, and wayfinding systems that leave the user's vision and ears free to attend to the physical world. It differs from conventional audio playback in that content is selected or positioned based on contextual signals such as the user's location, gaze, task, or surrounding people.