Hi, I’m Frazier from the Soundscape Team. One of my friends is going on a city break to Amsterdam next month and asked me for some tips of things to do there, as they know I’ve been before. Today, I am sharing how I did this using Soundscape’s latest feature, “Routes”. In this blog, I hope you will not only learn about this amazing new feature, but how much fun it was to revisit my trip and be able to share a few highlights with my friend. Soundscape will work anywhere in the world, so you can travel with it and have your familiar experience in your language of choice. 

My friend only has a weekend in Amsterdam and wants to pack in as much as possible. My plan was to create a walking itinerary for a day using a Route, and then also share some Markers of other places they might like to visit while they are there.

At the bottom of this blog, you’ll find links to all the Markers mentioned, so you can try them out for yourself!

What is a Soundscape Route?

Soundscape Routes are like a trail of Audio Beacons – a feature of Soundscape which plays a sound which always comes from the direction of the place it’s set on. (Read about Audio Beacons in our ‘Getting Fresh Air with Microsoft Soundscape’ blog). In fact: 

• A Soundscape Route is a sequence of Soundscape Markers joined together and finishing at a destination.
• When arriving at one of the Markers on the Route, instead of switching off, the Audio Beacon will automatically set on the next Marker.
• You can use Markers as intermediate waypoints along your Route to help you navigate to your end destination with greater ease.
• Routes can be shared, and each person is able to edit the Route based on their preferred style of guidance, some may want very frequent Markers, whereas others may prefer to only have Markers at key spots along the way.

The Soundscape ‘Route’ is a personal experience and can be tailored to individual preferences, whether you are creating it for yourself, or to share with someone else! 

I visited Amsterdam with my girlfriend between Christmas and New Year, it happened to be the time of year that they have their annual Light Festival with several light installations around the city. My first recommendation was to go while this was on!

My plan for the day was to grab a filling breakfast, go to a museum or two, walk around the city to appreciate the architecture, finishing with a boat tour to see the fabulous light installations, all while keeping well-fueled at some cafés and restaurants I had particularly enjoyed while I was there.

Starting the day off right

Beginning with breakfast, the first Marker I’m creating is for ‘Bakers and Roasters’. This is a great spot for a hearty breakfast to start the day! My friend is staying over on this side of the city, so launching the Route when he leaves his hotel should give him a nice simple walk to the café. Plus, it’s only a few minutes’ walk from Amsterdam’s Museum district so it fits in perfectly with the plan for the day.

Waypoint 2: Rijksmuseum

The first stop after breakfast is the Rijksmuseum, while it’s still early in the day. This is one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands! It is the national museum of the Netherlands and is dedicated to Dutch arts and history. The museum is in a huge, grand building, I’d make sure to allow plenty of time to walk around the grounds and take in the architecture!

In the museum, along with all the exhibits, you will also find the ‘Research Library’, the largest art history library in the Netherlands. This was one of my favourite parts of the museum – after walking around looking at all the art and historical artefacts, this picturesque, working library was somewhat unexpected!

There are several other museums in this area, such as the Van Gogh Museum, so if my friend would like to visit somewhere else then they can easily try a different museum without going far from the Route. In fact, the beauty of a Soundscape Route is that it doesn’t matter how far from the Route you might want to venture as the Audio Beacon will always be audible from wherever you may be. You can make a little detour and then just follow the sound of the Audio Beacon back to where you branched off! In this way, Soundscape gives you the freedom and flexibility to explore and discover a place on your own terms.

Jordaan

Next up on the day’s itinerary is the Anne Frank house museum. The museum is in the lovely neighbourhood or Jordaan and is about a 30-minute walk from the Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam is a very pedestrian friendly city due to the concentric nature of the waterways, all arcing around the city centre, you can get to virtually anywhere by walking along the canals, so I suggested to my friend that they walk between the two to really take in the city.

I placed a couple of intermediate Markers to help guide my friend between the Rijksmuseum and Jordaan, along with another in the centre of Jordaan to give them the opportunity to explore the neighbourhood some more and take in the sights of the tree lined canals and visiting the many independent shops in the area, and possibly grabbing a light lunch in one of the many tempting cafes. They can always skip this last Marker and go straight to the museum when they are ready if they prefer and come back another day when they have more time.

Fun fact: it is said that the houses have so many windows because the windows are lighter than walls, and this helped to stop the subsidence caused by soft ground that the city is built on.

Waypoint 6: Anne Frank House

The sixth waypoint is the Anne Frank House. This is the very house in which Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution during the Second World War. I didn’t get to go here myself when I was in Amsterdam because I hadn’t booked a ticket and the queues were very long. So, when I created this Marker, I added an annotation to make sure to book your ticket in advance to avoid disappointment! I did also let them know this in the email I sent when I shared the Route, just in case they don’t look before they get there!

[Image caption:] The distance shown on this screen will always be to your current location. Here it is showing the distance from where I was creating the Markers, but once you are in Amsterdam, the distances will be more meaningful.

Dinner & boat tour 

The last activity of the day is a boat tour around some of the canal-side light installations of the Light Festival. Before this though, it’s time to get some dinner. The boat tours leave relatively early, but after all the walking I’m sure they will have worked up an appetite! I created the Route’s fifth Marker on ‘Jacketz’, a restaurant in central Amsterdam which serves jacket potatoes with all kinds of toppings! When I went, I had the pulled pork filling, topped with a lot of cheese which was delicious and incredibly filling. It’s a good hearty meal, but it will be quick enough to eat and make it to the boat tour on time.

From Jacketz, it’s just a five-minute walk to the boat tour. The tour takes in some of the best sights of the festival and will give a perspective that you only get from canal-level. On the tour, you also get a commentary explaining what each bit of art represents – some of them can be incredibly abstract! I even thought about creating my own Soundscape Markers along this canal tour to share with my friend just so that he could point out a few things that don’t get mentioned on the actual tour.

On the walk back from the boat tour to the hotel, it is worth checking out what other Light Festival installations are on the way – there are a number that aren’t visible from the canals, so even after the boat tour, there is still more exploring to be done.

Other Markers to explore

After I had created the day’s itinerary for my friend, I then created some more Markers just in case they had time on their other days to check out some more of my recommendations, plus a couple of interesting facts I had learnt while I was there!  

First up, the narrowest house in Amsterdam. Houses in Amsterdam used to be taxed based on the size of their façade, so it was cheaper to have a very narrow house, even if it went back a long way. This resulted in some tall and thin houses! I added this as a Marker for my friend to discover while they’re walking around!

I also added another couple of food spots – one unassuming café in a library that served a simple but incredibly tasty breakfast, and a burger restaurant which has a wide selection of burgers to try, they offer a trio of mini-burgers as a sampling platter to make the mouth water! It’s a great spot for a quick and tasty meal that isn’t ‘fast food’.

After this, I added another couple of museums. The Amsterdam Museum is a museum all about the history of Amsterdam. Whenever I visit a new place, I love to learn about the history of the area, so I thoroughly recommended this if they have time. Another museum is the Van Gogh Museum, which I didn’t get a chance to visit, but is very much on my list if I return. And for something slightly different, I also created a Marker for the Heineken factory tour. I have heard that this is a fun way to spend a few hours if the weather is bad!

Finally, I added some Markers for some interesting landmarks I’d seen while I was there.  The first of which is the Magere Brug, or ‘Skinny Bridge’ in English. It is a very pretty bridge built on the site of a bridge from the 1600s which is said to have been so narrow that pedestrians could only cross it in one direction at a time. The bridge is also illuminated at night, making it a lovely place to go for an evening walk.

The second of these landmarks is Dam square, the historical centre of Amsterdam which dates back to the 13^th century, when the Amstel River was dammed. At one end of the square is the Royal Palace, a magnificent building, and around the rest of the square there are several other tourist attractions.

Sharing the route

Creating these Markers and putting them together in to a route took me about 15 minutes, but it was great fun to revisit my trip from a few years ago. Once I was finished, I shared these with my friend. They have checked them out and added a few of their own, now they are ready to go and explore Amsterdam! Once they’ve been, we will get them to provide an update on how they found using Soundscape to explore a new city as a tourist using Soundscape Routes and Markers, so check back in the future for an update!

Links to Markers

• Bakers & Roasters (opens in new tab) 
• Rijksmuseum (opens in new tab) 
• Intermediate Marker 1 – Antiquairbrug (Brug 69) (opens in new tab) 
• Intermediate Marker 2 – Raamstraat Intersection (opens in new tab) 
• Jordaan (opens in new tab) 
• Anne Frank House (opens in new tab)
• Jacketz (opens in new tab)
• Boat Tour (opens in new tab)
• The narrowest house in Amsterdam (opens in new tab)
• Library Cafe (opens in new tab)
• Burgermeester (opens in new tab)
• Amsterdam Museum (opens in new tab)
• Van Gogh Museum (opens in new tab) 
• Heineken Factory Tour (opens in new tab) 
• Magere Brug (opens in new tab) 
• Dam Square (opens in new tab)

If you’ve got any stories about how you’ve used Soundscape Routes, or anything else to do with Soundscape, then we would love to hear them! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at soundscape@microsoft.com.

Helpful tips

Creating a Route

1. To create a Route, select ‘Markers & Routes’ on the Soundscape home screen, the select the ‘Routes’ tab, followed by the ‘+’ button in the top right corner. Give your Route a name and description, then select ‘Add Waypoints’.
2. From here you can either add existing Markers, select new places from the Places Nearby option, add your current location, or search for somewhere else.
3. Once you have added all the places you’d like in your Route, select ‘done’. You can now reorder or remove waypoints if needed, if not, select the ‘done’ button again and your Route will be saved.  

Sharing a Route

1. To share a Route, select ‘Markers & Routes’ on the Soundscape home screen, the select the ‘Routes’ tab and select the Route that you would like to share. Select the ‘share’ button which will then give you a number of sharing options.
2. As the Route is shared as a file rather than a link, we recommend sharing it via email. Other platforms will work but may require extra steps.
3. When receiving a file, tap on it, and then select the ‘share’ icon. This will give the option of various apps you can ‘share’ the Route with, select Soundscape. Soundscape will open and you will be presented with the option to save the Route.  

Creating a Marker

1. To create a Marker, firstly find the place you would like to save as a Marker. You can do this by either selecting somewhere from the ‘Places Nearby’ list, selecting ‘current location’ on the home screen, or by searching using the search bar at the top of the home screen.
2. Once you are on the location details page for your chosen place, select the ‘Save as Marker’ button.
3. The name will be automatically filled, but you can change this, and you can also add an annotation which will be announced along with the name when the Marker is nearby.  

Repositioning a Marker

1. If you would like the change the location of a Marker you have created, select the ‘Markers and Routes’ button on the Soundscape home screen and then select the Marker you would like to reposition.
2. Select ‘Edit Marker’, followed by the ‘edit’ button on the map at the bottom of the screen. Note: with voiceover this is called the ‘Nudge Marker’ button.
3. If you aren’t using voiceover, then at this point you can drag the map until the Marker’s pin is in the correct location. Once you are happy with the location, select ‘done’ to close the map view, and then ‘done’ again to save the change to your Marker.
4. If you are using Voiceover, select ‘edit Marker’, followed by ‘nudge Marker’. You can then either nudge the Marker in the direction that your phone is pointing or use Voiceover actions to nudge the Marker in a specific direction or snap it to your current location.

The post Exploring Amsterdam with Microsoft Soundscape appeared first on Microsoft Research.

Year 6 (age 11) classroom teachers in the UK will be all too familiar with the challenge of keeping their pupils engaged in that very last summer half term of their primary education before they move onto a new secondary school. Amidst the excitement of final school plays, leavers’ assemblies and the anticipation of what’s next on their educational journey, how do we keep them engaged, give them some stretch tasks but also make a final project collaborative and fun? In the summer term of 2021, STAHS Prep pupils, with the help of their teachers, experimented with a project involving a partnership with the Microsoft Soundscape team.

The project

Wheathampstead village in Hertfordshire UK, which is home to the school, has a long and rich history. In recent times, the local historical society have curated some excellent trails including a Village Centre Trail which provides directions for a walking tour in the village taking in a series of historic sites marked with green plaques. In collaboration with the Soundscape team at Microsoft Research, pupils researched the sites and had the chance to create a new experience of the trail using a recent addition to the Soundscape app – user-authored trail functionality – to create recreational experiences.

Over a six-week period, the pupils were fully engrossed in all things related to developing a great immersive visitor experience using 3D spatial audio. In a kick-off session, they learnt more about Soundscape and its origins in enabling people in the blind and low vision community get around towns and cities. Across the curriculum, aspects of the project were woven into lessons. For example, the pupils explored different forms of poetry in their English lessons, while in Humanities they researched the lives of those who lived in Wheathampstead House before it became home to the school. The pupils further stretched their Humanities skills by learning to plot points on an Ordnance Survey map and collaborated with the wider Open Street Map (OSM) community to update the site information for the village in science lessons.

On a sunny day in June, we took Year 6 on a field trip around the village so they could experience the 3D audio capabilities of Soundscape. They were thrilled when they realised that they could hear the callouts for the historic buildings having previously updated OSM data. They also had the chance to take photos and make sketches of the buildings, read out the ‘haikus’ they had written and take the GPS co-ordinates for the plaques; some final content gathering in preparation to plot the trail. Having spent much of their time in the village, all the pupils were amazed to discover the diverse range of history, from the now disused railway station to the site of an Iceni village and earthwork dyke. To reward their hard work, pupils, teachers and parent helpers enjoyed an ice-cream when they got back to the school!

Back in the classroom, using information gathered in the field trip, the pupils plotted the trail in the new authoring tool and the Soundscape team published it in the app, so the students and staff at the school would be able to access it directly from Soundscape. A smaller group of pupils then tested the trail after school in the following week, making notes of what worked and what didn’t and how the experience could be improved – this information being passed back to the Microsoft Soundscape team to debug the trail experience.

In a final presentation to Microsoft and Guide Dogs (a well-known charity in the UK), the pupils shared their work from the project. They were full of constructive feedback with plenty of suggestions and new ideas for the Soundscape team; they were certainly not shy about sharing them either!

Reflections on the project

In conclusion, it was a very worthwhile project – the range of activities across the curriculum ensured that all learners were engaged in a wide variety of ways. The excursion day, the trail test day and final presentation gave momentum to the project and created focal points to aim for at key stages of the timeline.

It piqued the students’ interest about their local area, technology, mapping and their innate curiosity. The project made them understand the difficulties some people face in their day to day lives. It gave them the space, opportunity and time to think beyond themselves and their lives by giving support to the local community in a positive and meaningful way.

The partnership between the school (pupils and teachers), the Microsoft Soundscape team and our parent helpers was invaluable, particularly considering the age of the pupils (11 year olds).

Takeaways

We were keen to show the pupils that great technology experiences need skills from all disciplines – truly a project that demonstrates the power of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths). It was obvious that some pupils enjoyed certain activities more than others and that’s OK – we need that diversity of interest and thinking.

We explored the fact that by the time these young girls are established in their careers, we will be in the 2050s and beyond! Exposing young minds to leading edge technology allows them to think about the possibilities and shape their own future. One parent commented that in these days of scepticism surrounding technology, it presented a very positive and encouraging future.

Most of all, we hope our students discovered that engaging with leading edge technology in the ‘Tech for Good’ agenda is not difficult at all… in fact, it’s child’s play!

Call to action

The school plans to repeat a similar project in summer term 2022. We know how much our students got from the experience, and we’d be happy to share our materials and collaborate if you would like to embark on a similar journey with your school. Contact the Soundscape team at soundscape@microsoft.com and they will liaise directly with us. So please get in touch – wherever you are in the world!

All the best,
The Soundscape team

Helpful tips

Searching for a place

If you know the name of the place you’re looking for, select the search bar on the Soundscape home screen and type in the name—a list of results will appear under the search box. Selecting the one you were looking for will open the ‘Location Details’ page, where you can save the place as a Marker, set an Audio Beacon on it, start Street Preview at it, share the location, or open it in another map app.

Using the recent callout history

To find a list of places that you’ve heard Soundscape call out recently, tap on the search bar on the home screen and scroll down to the ‘Recent Callouts’ section of the page. Here, your recent callouts will be displayed. This list will show the last 50 callouts for your current session. If you close the app then it will clear this list. From this list, you can tap on a callout to open the ‘Location Details’ page for it.Opens in a new tab

The post Unlocking Young Minds with Soundscape appeared first on Microsoft Research.

I was on the train to London Paddington with Steven Abrams, the Quality Assurance Lead for Microsoft Soundscape. We were heading to London to test how well we could navigate using the Audio Beacon and a few different head tracking headsets.

Our plan was to travel around London testing Soundscape, and find our brunch spot—a small café in South Kensington called Muriel’s Kitchen—using the Audio Beacon. We wanted to test how the experience with the Bose Frames Alto’s and the Apple Airpod Pros compared to standard earbuds. Both of these headsets can tell Soundscape which way you are facing, allowing us to effortlessly hear the audio beacon and callouts in 3D while keeping our phones in our pockets.

When we stepped off the train at London Paddington, we thought “it’s only a few stops on the London Underground to South Kensington, I’m sure it can’t be that far to walk”. We checked, and it was going to take a quarter of an hour if we took the Underground, and about twice that time to walk, but at least we would be outdoors in the sunshine. It was a no brainer… we decided to enjoy London in the summer sunshine!

We walked out of the station into the hustle and bustle of London. Using Microsoft Soundscape, we set an Audio Beacon to Muriel’s Kitchen and connected our Bose Frames. Soundscape announced that Muriel’s Kitchen was 2.4km away, and from the direction of the audible tone I could tell it was roughly to the south of us, through the beautiful Hyde Park. As we started our walk, we passed through some areas around Paddington station that I’d never been to before—I’d only ever left Paddington station on a train! Using Soundscape, I was hearing the names of a number of shops and businesses being called out around me, giving me a real sense of what was in the area in a way that I wouldn’t usually notice. I heard a cash machine called out which reminded me that I had no cash on me. I looked in the direction of the callout and there it was. We made a short detour to take out some cash before continuing our journey.

After about 5 minutes of walking, we made it to the entrance of Hyde Park, I’d never realised how close it was to the station before!

As we entered the park we were greeted by the sight of the ‘Italian Gardens’ and their numerous fountains spraying glistening water in to the air. In front of these gardens was an ice cream van, which looked very inviting during the warm weather. We created a Soundscape Marker on it so that we could find our way back to the ice cream van later (assuming we still had room in our stomachs after our brunch!)

Walking through the park, we heard a callout for ‘Peter Pan statue’. Intrigued, we found it in our recent callout list and set an Audio Beacon on it to find out where it was. We found it off to the side of the path, surrounded by tourists. Steven commented that he had walked past this statue several times and until today never knew it was the statue of Peter Pan!

Once we’d found the statue, we switched our Audio Beacon back to the brunch bar and continued our walk through the park, using the direction of the Audio Beacon to seamlessly make decisions about which way to go when the path forked. And I don’t exaggerate when I say there are lots of paths crisscrossing this park in all directions. Occasionally, we took our phones out of our pockets to use them as a pointer to make sure the Bose Frames head tracking was still correct and that we were choosing roughly the right direction.

We stumbled upon a bright green parakeet amongst a group of pigeons—you don’t get those on the London Underground! After a quick search online, we found out it was a Ring-Necked Parakeet and that there are a number of them in London, quite how there came to be a number of these exotic birds here still seems to be up for debate!

We continued following the Audio Beacon, and as we approached the edge of the park, we saw a large golden structure covering a golden statue and used Soundscape’s ‘Ahead of Me’ command to find out that it was the Albert Memorial, which I later learned is a memorial to Prince Albert that was unveiled in 1872.

Just nearby, at this southern edge of the park, was an acrobatic school, which was fun to watch for a few minutes—lots of nervous looking students trying out the trapeze for the first time! At this point, I took the opportunity to switch from the Bose Frames to the AirPod Pros to test them for the rest of the walk.

On leaving the park, we soon found ourselves in the museum district, walking along ‘Exhibition Road’, hearing callouts for Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum. Again, this is somewhere that I’d only ever been to and from by train on the London Underground. This trip was really helping me to piece together where different London landmarks are relative to each other!

Continuing to follow the Audio Beacon, we soon found ourselves in the busy South Kensington area, full of cafés, restaurants and tourists. Now it was just the case of finding our brunch spot. Standing still, I turned my head from side to side while listening to the Audio Beacon. Once I was facing in the right direction, I could hear the tone of the beacon change so I knew that was the way to head. I heard “beacon 75m”, we were getting close. Before long, Soundscape announced we had arrived and sure enough, just ahead of us was the door to Muriel’s Kitchen.

For the walk back to the station we decided to go via the Albert Hall, seeing as we’d been so close to it by the Albert Memorial, but hadn’t stopped to admire the architecture.

After walking around the Albert Hall, taking in the impressive brick work and 800-foot-long mosaic, which was lit up wonderfully by the afternoon sun, we set our Audio Beacon on the ice cream van Marker we’d created earlier to get something cool before getting on the train.

Using Microsoft Soundscape for this walk had given me the opportunity to make my own way without worrying about getting lost or going too far off course. I could do the walk again and go a totally different route, but still be confident that I knew where I was, or at least I would know where I was as long as I kept following the beacon!

All in all, it was very useful day of testing, with a very tasty brunch to keep us fueled for the walk!

Helpful tips

Searching for a place

If you know the name of the place you’re looking for, select the search bar on the Soundscape home screen and type in the name—a list of results will appear under the search box. Selecting the one you were looking for will open the ‘Location Details’ page, where you can save the place as a Marker, set an Audio Beacon on it, start Street Preview at it, share the location, or open it in another map app.

Using the recent callout history

To find a list of places that you’ve heard Soundscape call out recently, tap on the search bar on the home screen and scroll down to the ‘Recent Callouts’ section of the page. Here, your recent callouts will be displayed. This list will show the last 50 callouts for your current session. If you close the app then it will clear this list. From this list, you can tap on a callout to open the ‘Location Details’ page for it.Opens in a new tab

The post Breakfast at Muriel’s appeared first on Microsoft Research.

They shared the Marker with me, I set an Audio Beacon and off I went in search of it! Soundscape announced that it was 1.8km away as the crow flies, so slightly more to walk.

Following the Audio Beacon, I walked through the Reading university campus—not the way I’d usually walk, but I knew I’d get there if I just kept following the Audio Beacon. The campus is on the site of an old manor house, so the grounds are quite impressive, with a large area of woodland and a lake. It was a nice place to walk, with birds tweeting and the morning spring sunshine creating long shadows.

Shortly after I’d left the campus, Soundscape announced “Huntley and Palmers building”. I looked to my right and there it was, this is the last remaining building from the old Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory. In its heyday this was the largest biscuit factory in the world! I heard “Beacon, 280m”, I was getting closer!

As I got closer, I heard a callout for “Oscar Wilde Memorial Walk”. Oscar Wilde, an Irish Poet and playwright, was one of Reading prison’s most famous inmates—imprisoned there between 1895-97. I was only 110m away from the artwork now. I had made good time so I decided to take a detour along this footpath which runs between the wall of the prison and the canal. The gates at the start of the path were shaped to resemble the writer, the fences along the walk have a number of quotes of his, and the benches are all the same size as a prison bed from the 19th century. It’s a very interesting part of Reading that I hadn’t noticed much before!

In front of me I could see the taller buildings of central Reading—I pressed ‘Ahead of Me’ and learnt that the buildings standing prominently in front of me was “The Blade”, the tallest building in the town. Also known as Abbey Mill House, “The Blade” is 86 metres tall and visible from almost everywhere in the town. To my right, I could hear the Audio Beacon coming from the direction of the artwork, and so I continued on my merry way.

At the end of the “Oscar Wilde Memorial Walk”, I stumbled upon the ruins of an old Abbey which once stood in Reading. Built in the 12th century, Reading Abbey was once one of the largest in Europe until it was destroyed in the 16th century.

I walked around the ruins, reading some of the information plaques and learning more about its history. As I continued through the ruins, I found myself in Forbury Gardens, which was originally part of the Abbey grounds and is now a public park in the centre of Reading. One of the main features of the park is the Maiwand Lion. I’d always seen this statue when walking through the park, but I wasn’t aware of its name until Soundscape called it out to me. I’ve since found out that it’s a war memorial and dates back to 1884 after the Battle of Maiwand, during the campaign in the second Anglo-Afghan War in Afghanistan. Locally it is known as The Forbury Lion.

With the Audio Beacon now coming from my right, and Soundscape announcing I was walking north, I knew I’d walked half way round the prison at this point. I decided to keep going the rest of the way round rather than retracing my steps. I left Forbury Gardens and followed the road around the northern wall of the prison. I was getting closer, Soundscape announced that I was 330m away from the Marker for the “Banksy Artwork”.

As I got closer, I could see a queue stretching round the corner with people waiting to have their photos taken underneath the artwork. I queued up and waited my turn to get a proper look.

The artwork shows a prison inmate escaping over the tall brick walls of the prison; they’re using what appears to be a rope made of bedsheets, but these sheets flow seamlessly in to a sheet of paper coming from a typewriter, an ode to Oscar Wilde.

I took a photo and sent it to my mum along with the Soundscape Marker of its location.

In turn, she then sent this Marker to a few of her friends, and before we knew it, quite a group of people had used Soundscape to help them locate this new artwork!

All in all, who would have thought that by simply following my way to the Marker for the “Banksy” artwork that I would end up taking a tour of some of town’s many tourist landmarks and lesser-known paths and road. In the end I’d walked 3km to get there, but it didn’t feel like that much. Often, we take very little notice of what is around us, but today my eyes and ears were opened, thanks to Microsoft Soundscape.

Helpful tips

Creating a Marker on your current location

To create a Marker where you currently are, select ‘Current Location’ on the Soundscape home screen, then ‘Save as Marker’. You’ll be able to give the Marker a name and annotation, then select ‘done’. Now that Marker will be in your ‘Saved Markers’ list.

Setting an Audio Beacon on a Marker

Select “Saved Markers” from the Soundscape home screen. You’ll then get a list of all your Markers, in order of the distance to them. If you then select the Marker you’d like from the list. This will open the Marker Details page with an option to set a Beacon on your Marker

Sharing a Marker

To share a Marker, select ‘Saved Markers’ from the Soundscape home screen, then select the Marker than you would like to share. When you select the Marker, you will be taken to the Marker’s ‘Details’ page, where you can select the ‘Share’ button to share the Marker.Opens in a new tab

The post Beacon on the Banksy appeared first on Microsoft Research.

Hello, Soundscape enthusiasts (or soon to be enthusiasts?)

I’m Marie Trudelle and I teach Orientation and Mobility (O&M) at LightHouse for the Blind (opens in new tab) in San Francisco, California. Prior to working at LightHouse, I taught K-12 at California School for the Blind. I love teaching and learning—there’s something magical about stirring one’s curiosity and creativity. I’ve found that when learning is fun, then comprehension and engagement can catapult. Today, I want to share a Soundscape lesson that feels so magical, it even involves Harry Potter. So, grab your ‘wand’ and ‘broomstick’, launch the Soundscape App, and get ready to soar through your city with Soundscape’s 3D audio technology as one of your tools!

Meet Sam

My student, Sam, is a teenage boy living in Silicon Valley with low vision and a mild memory impairment. He is an avid power walker, a huge Taylor Swift supporter, and brilliant at mental math. We have been working together for eight months.

Prior to the California moving into ‘lockdown’, Sam’s Orientation & Mobility (O&M) lessons focused on developing spatial awareness —enhancing his egocentric frame of reference and developing his allocentric frame of reference—in relation to his school campus. The egocentric and allocentric framework, two fundamental O&M concepts, describe how individuals process and act on spatial information. When using an egocentric frame of reference, Sam describes the location of a place relative to his current location (self-to-object). With an allocentric framework, Sam learns that the positioning between two places or objects are fixed, and do not change with self-movement (object-to-object). The two spatial relation concepts work in tandem to help individuals with visual impairments maintain orientation before and during travel.

During a recent remote O&M lesson, I learned that Sam was in the midst of reading the Harry Potter series. Sam is captivated by gold Galleons, herbology class, quidditch, and of course, all of the characters. As a Harry Potter fan myself, I enjoy spending a few minutes at the start of our lessons chatting with Sam about the chapter he just finished reading. His enthusiasm for the wizarding world led to a series of Harry Potter themed O&M lessons which combined spatial and sensory awareness concepts and the Soundscape app.

Why Soundscape?

Soundscape is a great tool to support general navigation and wayfinding in several different ways.” With a simple user interface and engaging user experience, Soundscape allows Sam to gain greater awareness of points of interest (POIs) on a micro and macro level. He can set “Markers” to landmarks in his neighborhood and add an ‘annotation’ (which is a customized description) about the area. In addition, his instructor can create and share personalized “Markers” for him. This lesson series is intended to help Sam become familiar with Soundscape features and improve his orientation to POIs.

The Wizarding O&M Series

Learning objectives:

• Sam will improve his spatial awareness of the area within a 3-mile radius of his home. He will set an Audio Beacon on selected POIs and use cardinal directions to verbalize where the destination is located in relation to his house. Sam will practice using an allocentric frame of reference by describing the location of his school in relation to the city park.
• Sam will review sensory awareness components by creating short annotations for selected Markers. The description may incorporate information about multi-sensory features of the POI, tips for maintaining orientation, or steps to complete a simple route.
• Sam will practice utilizing the following Soundscape features — the Audio Beacon, Markers with annotations, and the bottom navigation buttons. Note – Sam was introduced and oriented to Soundscape in a previous lesson.

Lesson description:
Sam received a virtual parcel from Hedwig explaining the assignment.

“Greetings Sam!
News flash – Harry and his friends are planning a trip from Hogwarts to Silicon Valley, next week. They have never been to this area before! They asked for help navigating around the Bay Area and need assistance locating a few destinations. I think you’d be the perfect virtual tour guide.

If you are up for the challenge, you will need to do the following:

1. Review the items on “Silicon Valley ‘Magical’ Destination List.” Note – you can find this on page two.
2. Identify ONE location per item.
3. Use the Soundscape App to search for the location AND create a Marker at the location.
4. If the item requires an annotation, be sure to add a short description to the Marker. Remember, Harry and his friends are new to the muggle world— they need help navigating!
5. If the item asks for a verbal description, you will share it with your mobility instructor during the Zoom lesson.

What do you say? Are you up for helping Mr. Potter?

Sincerely,
The Transportation Coordinator of Hogwarts School”

Harry’s Silicon Valley destination list

1. A field to practice Quidditch.
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to provide a verbal description about where the field is in relation to their house? Your student should use cardinal directions in their response.]
2. A place to study for Professor Sprout’s herbology final exam.
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to set a Marker at a location with an extensive garden. Your student should add an annotation to the Marker noting the various smells, sounds, sights, and textures Harry might experience when he first enters the garden area.]
3. A library to study.
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to think about quiet places to study. Perhaps it is their school library? Have your student create a Marker at the location and add an annotation to describe the route Harry would take to navigate from the parking lot to the library. Note the sounds in the parking lot and additional ambient sounds.]
4. A grocery store to purchase a refreshing drink (Hermione is not accustomed to the hot Silicon Valley summers!)
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to create a Marker at a local grocery store. Add an annotation to describe what items or smells might be found at the store entrance.]

   

5. A bank to exchange Galleons (gold wizarding money) for dollars!
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to set an Audio Beacon on the bank closest to their home or the bank they visit regularly. How far away is the bank in relation to the student’s home?]
6. A bus stop. Harry will need to catch the Knight Bus to meet Hagrid at Starbucks.
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to create a Marker and annotation at the bus stop closest to their home. The annotation should include the names of the nearby cross streets.]
7. A place to purchase Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. Ron will probably eat the whole box on the train ride to Silicon Valley!
   [Teacher note: Ask your student about where Harry can purchase some Jelly Beans? Set an Audio Beacon on this location. Where is it in relation to them? Encourage your student to use cardinal directions and/or distance units when describing the location.]
8. A path Harry and Ron can walk to stretch their legs after the long train ride from Hogwarts.
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to provide a verbal response to the following question. “What side of the path should Harry and Ron walk on? If they were using a long cane, what textures would they feel from their cane tip?]
9. A train station. Unfortunately, Harry, Ron, and Hermione can’t stay in the muggle world forever. They will need to return to Hogwarts at the end of the weekend.
   [Teacher note: Ask your student to create a Marker at the train station closest to their house. In the annotation, have the student state what platform Harry would go to if he wanted to catch the northbound train. What about the southbound train?]
10. Shh… this is a secret note from Dumbledore!
    Imagine it is July 30th—tomorrow is Harry’s birthday! What store or bakery should we buy his cake or dessert from?
    [Teacher note: ask your student to place an Audio Beacon on their favorite dessert spot? Where is this in relation to their school?]

Sam read the letter aloud during our O&M Zoom lesson—his smile stretched wider and voice climbed in pitch as he uncovered each task. Sam could not wait to jump into action. Mission accepted.

Lesson Progression

Step 1:

• Identify cardinal directions. Sam used the ‘My Location’ button in Soundscape to locate north and name the other cardinal directions.
• Orientation to the immediate environment. Sam squared off at the North wall and proceeded to trail the walls around the room, naming each one according to their cardinal direction and distinguishing feature.

Step 2:

• Name neighborhood landmarks. Discuss the location of key landmarks (i.e., his school, the boulevard perpendicular to his street, and frequently visited walking path) using an egocentric frame of reference.

Step 3:

• Review Harry Potter’s POI List. Read through and start completing items on “Harry’s Silicon Valley Destination List.”
  [Teacher tip: We started with the items that required verbal answers. We then transitioned to the questions that involved setting an Audio Beacon on a destination, and finally, the tasks that included creating Markers and annotations. It takes Sam several minutes to type an annotation. Since I wanted Sam to focus on the description within the annotation, I typed about half of the Markers with annotations and sent them to him. This worked well and enabled us to stay focused on O&M concepts instead of tech skills.]

  

Additional notes

Sam was reminded to select destinations that are within a 3 mile radius of his house. This constraint ensured Sam selects destinations that are relevant to his everyday life. For example, Sam chose Home Depot, a location he visits with his mom, as the destination for Harry Potter to study for his herbology examination. He chose a central park in his town for Harry to practice quidditch.

Key takeaways – Soundscape enables in-person and remote lessons to be:

• Personalized
• Highly engaging
• Based on O&M concepts

Conclusion

Yes, during this lesson, Sam set Audio Beacons, created annotated Markers, and described sensory information to help Harry Potter navigate Silicon Valley, during lockdown. However, and most importantly, the destinations selected are places Sam visits often OR are positioned near relevant POIs such as his school and local shopping center. When he visits the grocery store or on a walk with his parents, the Marker annotation will remind Sam to notice and make meaning of multi-sensory information and reflect on his position in relation to his home and other landmarks.

The lessons also provided a platform to discuss other O&M topics such as time distance and intersection analysis.

Content still open for debate

“Can Harry actually find Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans at Ralph’s (the local grocery store)?”
Sam fervently argues, “No, he needs to take Flying Ford Anglia, Ron’s magical flying car to Disney World. Or, maybe use ‘lumos’, the wand lighting charm, to walk day and night across the country to Disney World.”

What do you think?

I hope that this lesson provides a fun and rich learning experience to you and your students, wherever you live!

Thank you,
Marie

The Soundscape team would like to thank Marie for sharing this amazing story with us! We would love to hear about your experiences using Soundscape, so please do not hesitate to contact us at soundscapefeed@microsoft.com (opens in new tab). For any other feedback, you can reach us at the Soundscape Community (opens in new tab) page.

Below are a few hints and tips which we think will be helpful for people trying to use Soundscape in this way.

Hints and tips

Soundscape and Mobility

Remember that Soundscape is a navigation aide, not a primary navigation tool, and should not be used in lieu of mobility skills and good judgement. Soundscape provide users with contextually relevant 3D audio information regarding their surroundings, such as shops, bus-stops, intersections etc. and general navigational information to enhance and enrich their understanding and awareness of a space, but it will not help users identify obstacles or objects in their immediate vicinity.

My Location

The “My Location” tool can be invoked in multiple ways while you walk. Firstly, it can be found at the bottom left of the Soundscape home screen. You can take the phone out, press it, and get the intersection information.

It can also be invoked from your headset by double tapping the play/pause button on your headset. Please note that for this button press to work reliably Soundscape needs to be the current media player.

Setting an Audio Beacon on a Bank

First, select the ‘Set Audio Beacon’ button on the Soundscape home screen.

From here, there are two different ways you can find the bank:

• If you know the name of the bank you are looking for, then you can select the search bar at the top of the screen and type in the name, and select the bank from the search results
• If you don’t know the name and just want to find a bank close to you, then select ‘All Places’, followed by ‘Set Filter’. From the list of filters that will open up, select ‘Banks & ATMs’, this will open up a list of all the banks and ATMs near you.

This also works for other places, not just banks. If there isn’t a filter for the type of place you’re looking for, then you’ll either need use the ‘All Places’ list, or search for it.

Marker annotations

You can add an annotation to a Marker when you first create it, or you can edit an existing Marker to add an annotation. When editing or creating a Marker, there is now an annotation text field underneath the name and address fields.

This annotation will be called out after a Marker has been announced. This could be when you approach it, or when you select one of ‘Ahead of Me’, ‘Nearby Markers’ or ‘Ahead of Me’ on the Soundscape home screen and you are close enough to the Marker for it to be called out.

Search filters

When you select “Set Audio Beacon”, or you create a new Marker on the ‘Select a Location’ screen there are already two filters that you can use. They are as follows:

• Public Transit – this will show places like bus stops or local taxi businesses
• Food & Drink – this will show restaurants, cafes and other places where you can eat and drink
• All Places – this shows a list of a variety of places and landmarks near to you; plus, you can find additional filters from here as follows:
  • Things to Do
  • Groceries
  • Banks & ATMs

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The post Meet the Mobility Instructors – Learning to use Microsoft Soundscape with Harry Potter appeared first on Microsoft Research.

I came across Microsoft Soundscape in 2018 when I was researching technologies to support my clients. As an O&M, I am very aware of the challenges facing the clients that I support, and I saw an opportunity to use Microsoft Soundscape to overcome some of these challenges. I saw the potential for Microsoft Soundscape to support my client’s orientation; open space travel; straight-line travel; to learn complex routes in shorter time frames; independent travel in unfamiliar environments; and overall provide them with a richer awareness of their environment.

I want to share with you some ways in which I use Soundscape to support my clients. Let me introduce you to one of them, Yuto Kawai. Yuto is twenty years old, born in Japan and moved to Melbourne, Australia, two years ago. He is currently completing his final year of Secondary College (High School) with plans to study Psychology at University. When he’s not studying, Yuto loves fishing, rock climbing, and riding his bike and electric skateboard. He has an adventurous spirit. Yuto is totally blind and has been since the age of eight due to Morning Glory Syndrome. I have been fortunate enough to support Yuto with his O&M since he arrived in Australia.

On one occasion, Yuto wanted my support to learn how to get from a bus stop to a nearby indoor rock-climbing centre. Before meeting with Yuto, I inspected the route, and I found a couple of options. The most direct route was significantly shorter than the alternative. However, it was the most challenging. But I knew that Yuto, being the competent traveller that he is and his proficiency in operating Microsoft Soundscape, would be able to tackle the more complex route. We discussed the options and decided that we would put Soundscape and his skills to the test and stick with the most direct route.

The route involved Yuto travelling through a train station entrance area to a footpath, which runs parallel with a train track (on his left) and a car park (on his right). Yuto travels along the footpath, but towards the end of the path, which dead ends, Yuto needs to veer right into the large open car park and locate a gravel path that passes between two large shed-like buildings. It should be noted that the gravel thoroughfare has no discernible features to indicate that it is accessible to pedestrians. The gravel thoroughfare leads to a gate-opening taking him to the end of a cul-de-sac where the indoor rock-climbing centre is located.

Our process was first to guide Yuto the entire route, while Yuto was listening to the announcements from Soundscape. Upon travelling back to the start of the route (bus stop), Yuto and I determined the best locations to set Soundscape Markers. The plan was to use the Audio Beacon for each consecutive Marker to get him there. Once we had set all our Markers and returned to the bus stop, Yuto decided that he would attempt the route, and I was going to film him. I was filled with excitement! Finally, we get to put Soundscape through its paces. Could Yuto successfully travel this relatively complex route on his first attempt with the aid of Soundscape? I had every confidence that it was going to work.

It should be noted that at the time of filming, Yuto’s Bose Frames had run out of battery, so he had to use Soundscape amplified from his iPhone speaker. Standing at the bus stop, Yuto sets an Audio Beacon for his first Marker, and off he goes navigating his way through the train station and reaching his Marker on the other side. He sets his next Marker and travels along the footpath parallel to the train track and car park. As he nears his next Marker, the garden bed toward the end of the footpath, he sets his Marker for the gravel thoroughfare and travels through the open car park, this is the tricky section, open space travel. It is also worth pointing out that Yuto uses Soundscape so efficiently that at times he can set Audio Beacons for Markers while on the move. Following the Audio Beacon through the car park, Yuto locates the gravel thoroughfare and eventually locates the gate-opening leading to the end of the cul-de-sac. He stops, sets an Audio Beacon for the indoor rock-climbing centre. He’s on his final leg. Yuto follows the footpath and locates the driveway entrance, which leads to a small car park and onto the front door of the indoor rock-climbing centre. Yuto turns towards me and smiles; he had arrived. Not only did Yuto arrive independently, but he did so with efficiency and elegance.

I asked Yuto to share his thoughts on the event, and this is what he wrote:

Thanks to this app, my orientation skills have improved dramatically. For example, I did a ten-minute walk from a station to a café in a rock-climbing gym about eight months ago. It worked perfectly. Previously, I had always felt very nervous when walking to a place that I had never been to before as there were always many risks of becoming lost. But when I used Microsoft Soundscape it gave me a lot of confidence and made me feel calm while I was walking. Thanks to Microsoft Soundscape I knew where I was walking just by listening to the information coming out of the phone speakers. To help me navigate, I set some Markers between the start and the end point at important intersections, landmarks, and any locations that could be dangerous or challenging to me. I then set an Audio Beacon on each Marker and used the different Audio Beacon sounds to help me find them. I knew when I was walking towards the Marker because the Audio Beacon would change from the drumming beat to a high-pitched tone. Using Soundscape in this way creates an augmented reality in audio that helps me to build a mental map of my surroundings and makes navigation much easier. This means I didn’t have to concentrate on memorising the route that I had just walked. When I eventually arrived at the café, I enjoyed my coffee very much. I had arrived safely, and I was very pleased at what I had accomplished.

This event proved to me what I initially thought about Soundscape, the potential, among other things, for it to support my clients to learn travel routes in a shorter time frame and travel independently in an unfamiliar environment. I have only been an O&M for a short time, and to see what this technology can do has challenged some of the more traditional methods of O&M service delivery that I was taught, not that they aren’t still important. For Yuto to travel this route independently, safely and efficiently on his first attempt is amazing! And this would not have been possible without Soundscape. And without Soundscape, this route would have taken him a lot longer to learn. And for Yuto, to feel more confident and calm traveling in an unfamiliar environment, and not feel nervous or worried about getting lost, is amazing! For me, I see Microsoft Soundscape as an indispensable tool for delivering O&M support. Microsoft Soundscape is a game-changer.

That’s it for now, but don’t go away. I have another blog coming up soon where I will share with you an amazing experience that Yuto had with Soundscape while riding his electric skateboard in an open place using Soundscape Markers.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact.

Michael

The Soundscape team would like to thank Michael for sharing this amazing story with us! We would love to hear about your experiences using Soundscape, 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.

Below are a few hints and tips which we think will be helpful for people trying to use Soundscape in this way.

Hints and tips

Orienting yourself using your Markers

Selecting the ‘Nearby Markers’ button on the Soundscape home screen will call out up to four of your Markers that are close to you. These Markers will be called out spatially, and the distance to them will be given, so you will be able to hear where they are relative to you.

Another way to do this is to go to the ‘Manage Markers’ screen from the Soundscape menu. On this screen, there is a list of all your Markers. In the top right of the screen, there is a ‘sort’ button, you sort them by distance, then you can run down the list and read the distance and direction to each of your Markers.

Creating a Marker on your current location

There are two ways to mark your current location:

• The first is to use the ‘Mark Current Location’ button in the top right of the Soundscape home screen
• The second is to select ‘Manage Markers’ from the Soundscape menu, ‘Add Marker’, and then ‘Use Current Location’.

Setting a Beacon on a Marker

Select “Set Audio Beacon” and from there “Browse your Markers”. You’ll then get a list of all your Markers, in order of the distance to them. If you then select the Marker you’d like from the list, this will set a Beacon on your Marker.

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The post Meeting the MIs using Microsoft Soundscape – Michael Evans from Guide Dogs Australia appeared first on Microsoft Research.

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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The post Travelling in a Vehicle or on Public Transport using Microsoft Soundscape appeared first on Microsoft Research.

We often get asked: “How do you test Microsoft Soundscape?”

What a great question. You would be surprised how much is involved in testing this product. We could probably cover this in a few blogs! But for now, I’ll provide an overview of what we do and what our goals are.

We want to make sure that all our users have a great experience, and this means that we test Soundscape with a wide range of iPhones that reflect what our users are using, and we test in a variety of areas and environments that represent where they go. We repeat this testing cycle each time we release a new version of Soundscape.

Let me start by telling you that I feel I have walked a few thousand miles testing this product over the last few years! We have tested in big cities and quiet residential neighbourhoods. We have tested on hot days, cold days, and because we’re based in the United Kingdom, we’ve tested most often in the rain! We must test with several models of iPhone, each with its own SIM card. We also combine testing with headsets of all kinds. We test on the train, the bus, in the cab, and in our cars (but not while we are driving!) We have also travelled to places like Stockholm and Montreal where we worked closely with local blind organisations just to make sure that our foreign language versions work in those countries. As you can see, testing is time consuming but also thorough.

Although nothing beats being out on the streets and seeing how Soundscape behaves in the real world, we can test many of the features of Soundscape without leaving our desks.

When new features are created, we use simulations that allow us to pretend we are anywhere in the world. We can simulate being in environments that are rich with places to visit and experience, or we can simulate being in the middle of a national park with nothing much around us. Once we are happy that these features pass the basic testing using simulations, we eventually take Soundscape out into the real world.

As I implied above, I have worn out a few pairs of walking shoes as we have trekked hundreds of miles exploring the streets of several cities. We tend to have our favourite places for testing. Our local town of Reading in the UK is a perfect location. We have standard routes that we use for testing, and the environment is perfectly mapped out so that we know exactly what to expect. For very busy and challenging environments, we go to London. This allows us to test Soundscape while travelling on a train, and when we arrive in the city, we can test how the Soundscape experience stands up to the complex and busy road intersections and how well it reflects the physical world. The sheer quantity of points of interest could impact the performance of the device. And the noise of the environment around us could impact the audio experience depending on the different headsets we test with.

We know that people who are blind and low vision need to listen not only to Soundscape, but also to the environment around them. In fact, this applies to everyone since Soundscape is all about the audio experience. If you can’t hear what Soundscape is telling you, or if you can’t hear the external sounds around you, then this will likely not lead to a great experience. Testing Soundscape with different headsets is therefore very important. We have often tested Soundscape while blindfolded (and safely guided) just to make sure that the audio experience passes our tests. We then follow this up by arranging focus groups with users who are blind and low vision in order to collect their feedback and further improve and enhance the Soundscape experience.

Battery life is another area we spend a lot of time testing. When using an app that constantly checks and processes your current location, then compares that position with mapping technology, and then talks back to the user with audio callouts, the phone is going to use up your battery. We test to make sure how each of the different phone models perform, and how long their batteries last. Again, there is no better way than to spend a day on the move. Our bags will be full of devices of all types, and we will make sure that the environment is densely packed with points of interest, so that Soundscape is constantly processing. You won’t be surprised to hear that the older the device, the shorter the battery life. But due to our testing we are confident that Soundscape will support all your typical activities over the course of a day.

GPS is another area of testing that is important to us. In big cities with tall buildings it is common to find what are known as ‘urban canyons’ where the street is flanked by tall buildings on both sides creating a canyon-like environment. In such environments, the GPS signal will bounce off the buildings and could give the phone a misleading location position. As a result of lots of testing with GPS, we have learnt to accommodate these variances in the quality of the signal in different environments by creating the Soundscape Audio Beacon which has become one of the most powerful features of Soundscape today. Also, we have tested in environments where there is no phone signal, resulting in Soundscape having an offline experience to handle this.

So, as you can see from this glimpse into the life of a Soundscape tester, there is a lot going on to make sure that Soundscape is able to truly light up the world with sound in a way that is both empowering and rewarding for our users.

If you have ever wondered how we test other features or areas of Soundscape, or are interested in joining our ‘Insiders’ group who have access to pre-released versions, 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 Soundscape Team

Hints and tips

Snooze and Sleep to save battery

Soundscape has two different ‘modes’ for when you aren’t using it to help save your phone’s battery. They are ‘Snooze’ and ‘Sleep’ modes.

In ‘Sleep Mode’, Soundscape no longer uses GPS and therefore will not callout any places around you and it will not download any data if you move to a new area. This helps to save a lot of battery, without you having to close the app altogether.

In ‘Snooze Mode’, Soundscape is still using GPS, but in a low powered mode which helps to save the battery. In this mode, Soundscape will ‘wake’ up when you leave your current location. This is useful to save battery if you are stopped for a short amount of time, for example in a café with a friend. You don’t need to remember to restart Soundscape as it will happen automatically.

To put Soundscape in to Sleep Mode, select the ‘Sleep’ button in the top right-hand corner of the Soundscape homepage. There will now be two buttons on the screen, ‘Wake on leave’, and ‘Wake up now’. Selecting ‘Wake on leave’ is how you put Soundscape into Snooze Mode.

Troubleshooting GPS Accuracy

If the callouts you are hearing from Soundscape make you think that the app doesn’t quite have you in the right position, or you want to get an idea of the accuracy before you create a Marker on your current location, then you can check the level of GPS accuracy in the Soundscape app.

To check your GPS accuracy, select ‘Settings’ from the Soundscape menu, and then select ‘Troubleshooting’. Here you can get an estimate of how accurately Soundscape knows where you are located. Less than 10m (30ft) is generally good, between 10 and 20m (30 and 60ft) is okay, and more than this is poor.

To improve GPS accuracy, if possible, try moving away from any tall buildings, trees, and anything else that could be blocking the signal between your phone and the satellites.

Changing Soundscape’s Language

Would you like to hear what Soundscape sounds like in another language? To set Soundscape to a different language, select ‘Settings’ from the Soundscape menu, then ‘Language and Region’, and choose from the list of languages. When changing to a new language, Soundscape will take a moment to download the voices for that language, but once that is done, you’ll be able to listen to Soundscape in that language.

If you would like to change the language back, select the menu again (top left button on the Soundscape home page) and then select ‘Settings,’ which is the fourth item on the menu (fifth Voiceover item including the back button). On the ‘Settings’ page, the ‘Language’ screen is the first button at the top of the page (the fourth Voiceover item).

Changing Soundscape’s Voice and Speaking Rate

If you are finding Soundscape’s voice hard to understand, or you’d just like a change, then you can change the voice that Soundscape is using for callouts. To do this, select ‘Settings’ from the Soundscape menu, and then ‘Voice’. On this page you will be able to choose between a few different voices that are supported with the current language you have Soundscape set to.

If you are finding that Soundscape is talking too quickly, or too slowly, you can adjust this on the ‘Voice’ page using the ‘Speaking Rate’ slider. After you make a change, you will hear a short clip of speech to confirm the ‘Speaking Rate’.

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The post Behind the Scenes: On the Street with the Microsoft Soundscape Quality Assurance Team appeared first on Microsoft Research.

Download the latest version of Soundscape for iOS >

This latest update of Soundscape is designed to help with the following:

• Provide access to helpful tools and resources for using Soundscape in the current climate, for our users, including Mobility Instructors and the broader community
• Enable you to annotate, or describe in greater detail, Markers on your route to help you remember what to do at each stage of your journey. These annotations can be created by you, by a Mobility Instructor, or by a family member or friend
• Markers you create can now be shared with others; for example, you can send a Marker to another Soundscape user, or a Mobility Instructor or friend can send you Markers they have annotated for your route
• We also added a new filter for “Essential Services” so that you can quickly and easily find nearby grocery stores, pharmacies, and medical services

We hope that you will enjoy using these new features and the experiences they enable; we’re confident they will also help develop a few new skills along the way too.

To illustrate how these capabilities can help you, we will look at how they enhance the experiences discussed in our earlier blog posts designed to keep our users updated, engaged and informed during these unprecedented times. (And don’t worry if you haven’t had a chance to read them all yet, as we’ve included them for reference at the end of this article.)

Annotating Markers

We introduced Markers a little while ago; they allow you to quickly and easily mark-up anything in your surroundings that you care about. That could be, for example, your front door or the post box at the top of your street, or you can mark-up key landmarks in your area to help with learning a route, such as entrances to buildings, the bench in your local park, or even your favourite café or grocery store. Think of Markers as your list of favorite and important places which you can create for anything in your environment. This is a wonderful way for you to personalize the areas you walk in and build up confidence to go beyond what you are familiar with, always knowing that you have your Markers for orientation.

Now, when you create a Marker, you can also include a short descriptive text which will be part of the call-out when you hear the Marker. This will be particularly useful to you when you are out and about; equally, it opens a whole new world of possibilities, for example,

• You can now get richer and more contextually relevant information about a Marker when you hear it called out; this will help make your experience more meaningful and feel more reassuring.
• In the grocery blog, Steven’s wife will now be able to add something like “When you get to this intersection on your way to the shop, turn left on to Main Street.” This will make the journey less stressful for both Steven and his wife. Also, Steven will now be able to locate the grocery store, or any other essential service, by using the Essential Services filter. (see Hints and tips below)
• In the exercising at the park activity, Amos and his wife will now be able to provide clues to each other through the annotations they create on the Markers, and have a lot more fun with their ‘scavenger hunt.’
• In the getting daily exercise blog about taking a walk in an urban space, a Soundscape user could create Markers with annotations for how long it should approximately take to get from one point to another while providing helpful hints along the way (e.g. passing a fresh flower stall on the way where you can expect to smell the flowers as you approach them).

Sharing Markers

Soundscape now allows you to share a Marker, and its annotation, with anyone you know. We are excited about this new capability, as it will allow you to connect with others by sharing your favourite locations and places in a useful and helpful way.

The following provide some excellent examples in which Markers can be shared in a simple and straightforward way, making things a little easier each time you go out.

• You can now easily share a Marker with a friend for something like a grocery store to help them find a store to get all their supplies
• Steven’s wife is now able to send a Marker to him for the intersection she recommended he went by
• Soundscape now allows Amos and his wife to exchange Markers of different places for each other to find (they could even turn this into a fun game, like a scavenger hunt!)
• Easy to imagine that friends could send each other unnamed Markers and have fun guessing what place it refers to based on direction, distance, and the annotation!
• Mobility Instructors are now able to send Markers to their clients on the routes they were working on, which will be important in helping maintain these important working relationships

We look forward to your comments and feedback on these new capabilities, and on how we can continue to make a difference for, and in, the community. We can be reached via email or on our Soundscape Community Group page on Facebook.

Stay well and stay safe,
Amos and the Soundscape team

Supporting links

• Getting Fresh Air with Microsoft Soundscape
  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/group/enable/articles/getting-fresh-air-with-microsoft-soundscape

• Where in the World – with Microsoft Soundscape
  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/group/enable/articles/where-in-the-world-with-microsoft-soundscape/
• Travelling to essential services using Microsoft Soundscape
  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/group/enable/articles/travelling-to-essential-services-using-microsoft-soundscape/

• Getting my daily exercise using Microsoft Soundscape – Part 1
  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/group/enable/articles/getting-my-daily-exercise-using-microsoft-soundscape-part-1/
• We’re going to the park: daily exercise using Microsoft Soundscape – Part 2
  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/group/enable/articles/were-going-to-the-park-daily-exercise-using-microsoft-soundscape-part-2/

Hints and tips

Essential Services

There is a new option for ‘Essential Services’ under the ‘Explore Nearby’ heading when you select either Set a Beacon or add new Marker. When you select this option, you will get a list of places such as grocery stores, chemists and doctor surgeries.

You can also get to this list by selecting ‘All Places’, then ‘Set a Filter’ and choosing ‘essential services’ from the list of categories that pops up.

Marker annotations

You can add an annotation to a Marker when you first create it, or you can edit an existing Marker to add an annotation. When editing or creating a Marker, there is now an annotation text field underneath the name and address fields.

This annotation will be called out after a Marker has been announced. This could be when you approach it, or when you select one of ‘Ahead of Me’, ‘Nearby Markers’ or ‘Ahead of Me’ on the Soundscape home screen and you are close enough to the Marker for it to be called out.

Sharing Markers

To share a Marker, select ‘Manage Markers’ from the menu in Soundscape, then select the Marker than you would like to share. When you select the Marker, you will be taken to the Marker’s ‘Details’ page, where you can select the ‘Share’ button to share the Marker.

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The post Annotating and Sharing Markers with Family and Friends through Microsoft Soundscape appeared first on Microsoft Research.

If you wanted to have a quick refresher of the blogs before you take the quiz, here they are:

• Getting fresh air with Microsoft Soundscape
• Where in the world – with Microsoft Soundscape
• Travelling to essential services using Microsoft Soundscape
• Getting my daily exercise using Microsoft Soundscape – Part 1
• We’re going to the park: daily exercise using Microsoft Soundscape – Part 2

To make things a little interesting, we’ve split the quiz into two parts! Starting off with some straightforward questions, you can then move onto ones that are a little more challenging! Do remember though… this is just for fun, and hopefully it will help refresh a few things you’ve learnt about Soundscape from using it and reading our blogs!

Right then, let’s get started. You can check your answers at the bottom of this article.

The warm-up questions

Question 1: What is the easiest way to find your nearest Bus Stop?

Question 2: When listening to the audio beacon, and your chosen destination is behind you, how does the sound of the beacon differ compared with when you are facing it?

Question 3: If you want to repeat a callout that you just heard; how would you do this?

Question 4: For English speaking users, how many different voices can they choose from?

Question 5: Which of these places is furthest away from you? “Helsinki” in Finland, “Sao Paulo” in Brazil, “Tokyo” in Japan, or “Lisbon” in Portugal?

Well, that wasn’t too bad was it! If you want to take a break before tackling the next lot of questions and come back to them later, then by all means do so!

The slightly harder questions

Question 6: Other than the “All Places” filter, how many other different filters are there in Soundscape for nearby places and can you name them all?

Question 7: What are two ways for finding your way home using an audio beacon?

Question 8: When setting an audio beacon, Soundscape has a list called “Recents”. What is the maximum number of places displayed in this list?

Question 9: What is the difference between the “Sleep” and “Snooze” modes in Soundscape?

Question 10: How do you set an audio beacon on an intersection between two roads?

Before you look below to check the answers, there is one final bonus question for you all.

Bonus item: What has been your favourite experience(s) when using Soundscape?
Please send us your responses to soundscapefeed@microsoft.com, and let us know if we may share them with our community. We plan to collate them into a blog of their own. For example, share with us how you had fun with Soundscape, or how Soundscape helped you with a particular challenge, or any other tips and tricks that you think other Soundscape users would love to know about.

Now for the answers…read below!

Answer 1: Select the “Public Transit” filter and all public transit points of interest will appear in the list with the nearest at the top. The list will include bus stops if they are nearby.

Answer 2: After setting an audio beacon on your chosen place or destination, when you are facing it the sound of the beacon is higher and you will hear more beats in the rhythm of the sound. As you turn round and start to face away from the beacon, the rhythm decreases, and the sound becomes lower.

Answer 3: Look at the callout history at the bottom of the Home screen and select the “repeat” button. Microsoft Soundscape will play the callout again for you.

Answer 4: There are 4 English speaking voices. They are “Jess”, “Adam”, “Jack” and “Megan”.

Answer 5: This is a trick question as it depends on where you live! To find out, select the “Set Audio Beacon” button and the “Search” option to find out which of these places is furthest away.

Answer 6: Currently there are 5 additional filters in Soundscape: Public Transit, Food & Drink, Things to Do, Groceries, and Banks & ATMs. Here’s a screenshot illustrating the filters:

Answer 7: Create a Marker at the location of your Home and name it accordingly. Do this by being at home, and then selecting the option to add a Marker at the “Current Location”. Whenever you are away from home and you need to get back, simply set an Audio Beacon on this Markers and Soundscape will help you to find your way back. The second way is to search for your home address and set an Audio Beacon on it.

Answer 8: A maximum 5 places. Whenever you search for a new place, or create a new marker, it will be added to the list of “Recents”. The oldest item in the list will be replaced by the newest item. There are never more than 5 places displayed in the list.

Answer 9: Both modes are accessible from the top right corner of the Soundscape Home screen. Both modes will save battery power when you want to temporarily stop using Soundscape. When you select the “Sleep” button and go into “Sleep mode”, Soundscape will stop downloading data and looking for location information. You can only exit “Sleep mode” by manually selecting the “Wake Up Now” button. To “Snooze”, you have to select the “Wake on Leave” button instead. Soundscape will continue to use GPS in a lower power mode and will automatically wake up after you have left your current location.

Answer 10: Select “Set Audio Beacon”, and in the Search box enter the names of the two roads separated by the word “and”. E.g. “NE 8th Street and Bellevue Way”

Thank you,
Frazier and Steven from the Microsoft Soundscape team

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The post Quiz time with Microsoft Soundscape appeared first on Microsoft Research.