Spatial sound is the presentation of audio channels with positional attributes.
DSP-synthesized spatial sound, driven by even a simple positional database, can denote directional cues useful to a visually disabled user. Azimuth, elevation, and distance can all be conveyed by these effects. As a concept demonstration, we muted a telephone, and then used Maw to spatialize a ringing signal at its location, putting the sonic image of the phone into the office environment. In the case of blind users, we hope that such a system might be used to augment the user's cane or guide dog. As shown in Figure 3, this sensor can be connected to a notebook computer, responsible for programming the sensor and using the user's offset vector to generate appropriate binaural audio cues.