1. SPATIAL SOUND FOR MOBILE
NAVIGATION SYSTEM
Wataru Sanuki
Spatial Media Group
University of Aizu
2013/12/11

2. Outline
• About topic
• Previous studies
• Experiment
• Findings
• Meaning of findings
• Study I could not accomplish
• Conclusion

3. About topic
A combination of spatial sound and GPS system allow
mobile device users to preform a location task while their
eyes, hands, and attention are often otherwise occupied. It
is possible to make new style of navigation system using
the system.
My research questions are
1. How to interlock spatial sound with navigation system?
2. How to make more effective spatial sound GPS
system?

4. Previous studies
There is a paper about considering a prototype audio use
interface for a Global Positioning System(GPS) that
designed to allow mobile computer to carry out a location
task while their eyes, hands.
There are methods of getting geographic information and
compass data. In addition, send the data to the CVE server
and use it for many ways like control spatial sound.

5. Experiment
I use Unity to interlock
spatial sound and navigation
system. Unity is a crossplatform game engine with a
built-in IDE developed by
Unity technologies.
It is use to develop video
games for web plugin,
desktop platforms, consoles
and mobile devices.

6. Findings
I made a spatial sound using
Unity. It could create spatial
sound by creating sound object
and audio listener object. But
there was a problem. The spatial
sound made by unity is easy to
distinguish right from left but it is
hard to distinguish backward to
forward. Therefore I made a
difference sound between
backward and forward.

7. Findings
I made a easy navigation system
using Google static maps API. It is a
API that let us embed a Google maps
image on Unity’s object without
requiring JavaScript or any dynamic
page loading. It is easy to point
current place and the place a user
wants to go. In addition it can make
path between two points. By paste the
map image to Unity’s plane object, I
could make navigation system.

8. Findings
To interlock a spatial sound with
navigation system, calculate the
bearing of user’s location to point
that user wants to go, and render
sound object at the goal point. To
calculate the bearing of two points, I
used hubeny’s formula. I could
interlock spatial sound with
navigation system by using these
data.

9. Meaning of findings
Thorough experiment I decide these things.
• Unity can make easy to make spatial sound but it is not
better than other way to make spatial sound.
• By using the Google static maps API, I could make
navigation system but its operability is not good.
• Unity is difficult to make useful GUI. It needs to buy the
asset for making GUI.

10. Conclusion
I could interlock spatial sound with navigation system using
Unity. About effective spatial sound, I made a filter to the
source sound file. But it was not completed spatial sound.
To make more effective spatial sound, I suggest that
making spatial sound source by binaural record and set the
function that control the sound.
The system have many way to use like navigate person,
finding objects and so on.