Hi there, Steven from the Soundscape Team here again.
One of the most common questions we receive in customer feedback is how Microsoft Soundscape appears to announce callouts slightly differently when travelling in a vehicle or on public transport compared with when you’re just walking or stationary somewhere. In this blog, I will explain the subtle nuances of what is going on and why.
Perhaps the clearest difference is the response you get from Soundscape when you invoke ‘My Location’. The response will vary depending on your situation to more accurately reflect the activity or position you may be in. For example, when you are stationary or at home just exploring some of the features in Soundscape and you invoke ‘My Location’, Soundscape will respond by saying “Facing…” followed by the direction you are you facing in. However, when you start walking, ‘My Location “will say “Heading…” followed by the direction you are heading towards E.g. “Heading South along High Street”. But when you are in a vehicle, bus, train, or some other mode of transport, Soundscape will say “Travelling…” followed by the direction you are travelling in. e.g. “Travelling West along Friar Street”.
But what else is different?
Well, the first thing you may notice is that when travelling (in a vehicle) Soundscape will no longer callout all the road intersections you are approaching, or the multitude of stores, banks, cafes and other points of interest that you are passing. Instead, Soundscape will only callout certain landmarks and bus stops. The reason for this is simple. When you are in a fast-moving mode of transport, the sheer quantity of places and roads that are passing you by becomes overwhelming and largely irrelevant for the user, especially in busy urban towns and cities. So, instead, Soundscape will focus on helping you build a mental map of the environment you are travelling through based on landmarks, like hospitals, schools, churches, etc.
You may have wondered why Soundscape continues to call out bus stops when you’re travelling, and the reason for this is simply that we know a lot of our users travel by bus and having the bus stops announced is a great way of keeping them informed of where they are and that they’re travelling where they intended to! And, related to this, Soundscape will also inform you of your location each time the vehicle turns into a new road. What about informing you about train stations, tram stops and other types of transport I hear you ask? Well, we are working on improving that too and we might see some changes in the future.
Soundscape is also quite clever in that it will callout landmarks that are much further away than usual. When you are walking, you will hear things called out nearby. But when you are travelling on a bus at 30mph through a town, or on a fast speed train between cities at over 150mph, the nearby points of interest no longer become useful and instead Soundscape will callout more distant landmarks, so that you can orient yourself in the environment you are travelling through. When your journey has finished and you are walking again, you will start to hear places that are nearer to you.
Another important consideration we have designed into the travel experience is the importance of the direction in which you are travelling. Callouts are no longer based on which way you are facing, but only on the direction you are travelling in. You won’t notice this so much when you are in a car, but this is more noticeable when you are on a bus and you are sitting in a seat at ninety degrees to the direction of travel; or when you are on a train and you may be facing opposite to the direction of travel. The callouts you hear are always relative to the direction of travel, and this may sound strange with standard headphones. However, if you find yourself not facing the direction of travel, just take your phone out of your pocket or bag and use it as a pointer to accurately determine where places are located. Try this by setting an Audio Beacon on any point of interest the next time you are commuting or travelling in a vehicle to experience how this works. I will discuss this in more depth in a future blog!
Anyway, I hope this has been useful. Our goal with Soundscape is to “Light Up the World with Sound.” Now that you know this, the next time you are travelling you will experience and notice the differences outlined above. We would love to hear about your experiences and how you use Soundscape when travelling, so please do not hesitate to contact us at soundscapefeed@microsoft.com. For any other feedback, you can reach us at the Soundscape Community page.
Thank you,
Steven and the Microsoft Team
Helpful tips
Managing what you hear called out by Soundscape
You can adjust the types of callouts you hear in the Soundscape settings. To do this, open the Soundscape menu, select ‘settings’ and then find the ‘Manage Callouts’ section of this page.
In this section, you can toggle on or off callouts for each of the three categories, along with turning callouts off altogether using the ‘Allow Callouts’ toggle. The categories of callout are:
- Places and Landmarks – this includes points such as shops, restaurants, parks, hospitals, hotels and supermarkets. When travelling in a vehicle, it is the more major places from this category that Soundscape still calls out
- Mobility – this includes intersections, road crossings, pharmacies, along with transport information such as bus stops
- Audio Beacon distance – when this is on, and you have an Audio Beacon set, you will hear updates about the distance to the beacon.
Creating a Marker at your bus stop
If you want to be able to find your bus stop again quickly and easily, create a Marker on your current location while you’re waiting for your bus. Doing this will save that location in your Markers list so that you’ll be able to find it again without having to search for it.
If you’re making a return journey, you can set an Audio Beacon on the bus stop to hear updates on how far you are from your stop, so that you can prepare to alight in advance.
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