A Pilot Study Comparing Performance of Blind Participants on 12 Tasks, With and Without the ARIA Device

ARIA stands for Augmented Reality in Audio. The ARIA Device consists of Augmented Reality glasses connected by cord to a dedicated mobile phone that has the ARIA app installed. The glasses include cameras, speakers and an inertial measurement unit. The phone app uses artificial intelligence to convert camera vision from the glasses into a soundscape that includes words and unique sounds identifying specific objects nearby, and an audio rendering of depth that estimates the user's distance from solid matter. This soundscape is delivered to the user via an amplifier that enables volume control and switch-off. The soundscape is designed to augment rather than replace natural hearing, increasing the user's perceptual access to details in the nearby environment.