EscFOA: Enhancing Spatial Learning for Visually Impaired Learners via Generative Spatial Audio in 360-Degree Educational Environments
It addresses the lack of accessible spatial structure in 360-degree educational environments for visually impaired learners, enabling independent orientation and learning.
EscFOA uses 3D Gaussian Splatting and conditional diffusion to generate geometry-aware spatial audio from 360-degree videos, improving spatial orientation and reducing cognitive load for visually impaired learners, outperforming monaural and stereo audio in a study with blindfolded sighted participants.
Immersive 360-degree educational environments often lack accessible spatial structure, limiting visually impaired learners' ability to orient, explore, and construct mental representations. This paper proposes EscFOA, a geometry-aware spatial audio generation framework designed as an \emph{acoustic scaffolding} to support spatial cognition. By integrating 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) with conditional diffusion models, EscFOA reconstructs scene geometry from 360-degree videos to synthesize high-fidelity spatial audio consistent with the environmental structure. Explicitly targeting learning outcomes like independent spatial orientation and reduced cognitive load, EscFOA significantly outperforms conventional monaural and stereo audio in supporting spatial learning behaviors among blindfolded sighted participants (simulating visually impaired learners). These findings demonstrate that geometry-consistent generative audio can effectively enable inclusive access to complex spatial learning materials.