Navigation Performance In Complex Multi-Story Environments Using Audio-First Mixed Reality

MR interfaces have traditionally prioritized visual modalities as the primary conduitfor user interaction. While effective in certain contexts, this visual-first approach revealscritical limitations in high-stakes, cognitively demanding environments wheresustained visual attention may be impractical or counterproductive. This study challengesthe dominance of visual-centric design in MR and advocates for a transformativeshift toward audio-centric interaction paradigms. Accordingly, a conceptualframework for an Audio-Based Situated Analytics system is proposed. Such a system,rebalances sensory load by elevating auditory engagement and reserving visualchannels for the most urgent, attention-critical tasks. This holds the potential tosignificantly enhance usability, resilience, and inclusivity in a range of applications.An AR navigation task software is developed by following this proposed framework.Finally, the study experimentally evaluates the effectiveness of 3D spatial navigationin an AR environment using this software. It compares the performance of participantsusing audio AR navigation to those using visual AR navigation, traditionalnavigation without aids, and a combination of audio and visual AR. The results ofthis study show that audio AR has the capability to maintain the environmentalawareness of a user similar to that of a person who does not use any AR assistance.The results also show that audio AR is capable of having similar performance tovisual AR in the navigation of complex, 3D environments. The results show similarfindings for audio AR in 3D environments to those of previous literature, which weremainly focused on 2D environments. As a conclusion, this study provides severalinsights on the benefits of audio AR in the context of navigation of 3D environments.The results also identify several areas for future research.