Hello there, my name is Amos Miller and I’m the Product Lead for Microsoft Soundscape. In this piece, I want to share what I do when going out for a walk with my guide dog Saigon, for us both to get some fresh air and exercise. I hope you will find this helpful.
Getting outside for some fresh air and exercise is essential, especially during these difficult times of lock-down due to the Coronavirus. Yet the thought of a walk may also make you feel a little anxious, and that is entirely natural. You might not know your way around well enough to just take a walk, you may know the area but haven’t really ventured out on your own, or frankly it can be a little boring as well. Soundscape can alleviate some of these, and you may even find it quite a bit of fun. So, let’s see how you can do this with confidence using Microsoft Soundscape.
Unless you have a clear route in mind, what I often find useful is to do an out-and-back walk towards some relatively distant destination. I may well not get all the way there, but that doesn’t matter. It gives me a goal, and the beauty of Soundscape is that I know where I am, and I can turn back any time, either going back the same way I came, or going back another way.
Before heading off, you will always want to make sure that everything is ready to go. If you use a dog, ensure the dog is fed, relieved and motivated. Your dog will be in unfamiliar places and you will be asking it to take a lot of initiative for you, so going out with that mindset will be helpful. You yourself will want to be fed, centered and calm. Do what you find most relaxing before you step out the front door, so that you walk out feeling positive and expecting a nice time.
Make sure your phone and favorite headset are charged and paired. If you have the Bose Frames, just go to the Soundscape menu / AR Headset to check that they are connected and ready to go.
You are almost ready. The last thing you will want to do before heading out is to set the Soundscape audio beacon to a distant destination by tapping “Set Audio Beacon” on the home screen and selecting a location. As a reminder, the audio beacon sounds like a small bell that indicates the distance and direction to your destination. It doesn’t tell you how to get there, but by knowing which direction it is in, you will be making navigation decisions along the way. More on that below.
Before heading off, you may also want to mark your home so that you can easily get back. You can do that by tapping “Mark Current Location” on the home screen and confirm the Marker creation. You can create such Markers along the way at any time you feel you are departing from a familiar place and you want to be sure you can get back easily. You will find that marking up these “anchors” really helps reduce a lot of the anxiety because they are personal to you and you have them at hand so you are never really lost, even if you do wander off in the wrong direction at any point on your way. Think breadcrumbs, without the birds.
Ok, it’s time to do your last relaxation exercise—3 big breaths, feel positive, and head out.
As you step out of the front door and onto the road, pause for a moment and listen carefully for the direction that the audio beacon is coming from. If it is not crystal clear, pull the phone out of your pocket and holding it flat, point it while moving in a slow arc until you hear the emphasis bell at the center in front of you. That’s where you’re heading towards, and based on that, you can now decide in which direction you will begin your walk. You can now put the phone back in your pocket and start the walk. If you have an audio AR headset, the audio beacon will continue to play. If you have normal headsets, such as bone conduction or regular earbuds, the audio beacon will be quiet until you start walking and then it will come back. Soundscape needs to feel your direction of movement so it can place the audio beacon in the correct direction.
Whilst walking, you will likely start to hear callouts of landmarks in your area. If you live in the suburbs or a rural area you may hear only very few callouts, and if you are in the city you are likely to hear them quite regularly. Callouts are not giving you any instructions they are just enriching your awareness. If you find that you prefer a quieter walk at this stage, you can always go to the Soundscape settings and turn certain callout categories off. We recommend that you always leave “intersection callouts” on because they are critical to your navigation decision making.
One tool that Soundscape provides that will now be very useful for you is “My Location” which will confirm to you the road you are on and inform you of the next intersection coming up in the direction you are walking. This is particularly useful if this is a part of the route you are not familiar with and you need to know how far the next intersection is because you want to find a place to turn left or right. For example, you may hear the audio beacon ahead of you but quite a long way to the right, so you will want to be sure there is an intersection not too far off where you can turn right. This takes away a lot of the anxiety because you can just relax into your walk, knowing that you’re on a good path and that all is well.
As you near the intersection, Soundscape will automatically tell you that you are approaching and will construct an audio 3-dimensional layout, telling you in which way each road leaves the intersection. Hearing that there is a road to your right in the same direction as the audio beacon, you can confidently know that you need to turn right here. You will guide your dog or use your cane to locate the crossing. As always, use your mobility skills to safely cross an intersection, and away you go.
As you continue your walk you will hear the audio beacon, likely somewhere in front of you. You will hear periodic callouts for distance and other landmarks. A really good exercise is to try and not listen to what Soundscape is saying and just relax into the walk. You will not miss anything. If you wonder for a moment if you are heading in the right direction, just pay attention to the direction of the audio beacon again, if it’s good, then you are good. I find that with practice you can just let it blend into the background so that you hear it when you place your attention on it. Test out different volume settings so that it’s right for you and the environment around you.
You will continue walking, getting to intersections and repeating the decision-making process outlined above. If at any point you feel that you are departing from a place you are comfortable with, just create a Marker in your current location, it is quick and easy to do that. This will really help you reduce anxiety when you do head down a road you are not familiar with. Remember, breadcrumbs.
How are you feeling? Relaxed? A little anxious? This is entirely natural. What you have already done is great progress, you don’t have to feel that you need to get all the way to the destination. Remember it was just used to give yourself a direction for the walk. Tomorrow you can try to go even further.
So, if you want to turn around you can just turn back or perhaps walk to the next intersection and cross over to walk back down the next block. Either way, at this stage you could clear the current audio beacon and set a new one to go back home. Again, relax, breathe, check in with your dog, center yourself, and begin your walk home. You’ve done a great job. When you do it again tomorrow you will find it easier and easier, and each time you may feel compelled to just go a little further, perhaps to the next intersection, or the next block.
Please do share with us how this went for you. We’d love to hear about your experience. Tell us your story, where you went, how it felt, what you did along the way. We would also be very happy to publish your narratives on this site so that others can learn from your experience.
With care,
Amos and the Microsoft Soundscape team
Helpful tips
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.
Making the headset buttons work with Soundscape
If it isn’t working then close Soundscape in the iPhone task manager and open it again, and it will become the primary media player. When you open Soundscape again the beacon may start muted so you will need to unmute it either from the Soundscape home screen, or with a single tap on the play/pause button on your headset. A single tap on the play/pause headset always hushes Soundscape and mutes or unmutes the audio beacon.
Setting an Audio Beacon on a Marker to get home
Using either your Marker on your home, or an intermediate Marker you may have created along the way, you can start your journey home. Select “Set Audio Beacon” and from there “Browse your Markers” If you didn’t create any markers you can always just set the beacon to your home address by typing it into the Search box at the top of the beacon location screen.
Find more Soundscape tips & tricks >
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