Assisted spatial navigation: new directions

Abstract

Blockchain technology brings new possibilities in assisted spatial navigation. Decentralized map building enables collaboration between users around the world, while providing researchers with a common reference map for extending the capabilities of navigational systems towards more intuitive and accurate landmark navigation assistance. Research on landmark navigation has been mainly focused on the visual characteristics of landmarks. Human behavior, however, has systematically been shown to be enhanced in the presence of multisensory unified events. We propose, therefore, the enhancement of spatial assisted navigation by utilizing landmarks that are multisensory and semantically congruent. Further, our research will provide insights in terms of the auditory parameters that could be combined with a given visual landmark, so as to facilitate landmark retrieval algorithms and user satisfaction during assisted spatial navigation.