3D audio navigation and environmental control?

What gets me excited in the augmentative reality space (amongst many things!) is it’s application to real world scenarios.

There have been several AR apps released recently that overlay additional navigation details to visual mapping systems: Google Maps and Apple Maps to name a few. When Microsoft developed Soundscape which focuses on navigation cues via 3D audio I was particularly excited to (a) be able to provide feedback into the development of the app but (b) to see it’s application by people with vision impairment.

Whilst further development of Soundscape appears to have ceased they have released the project code as open source.

I read with interest the work being done by Dreamwaves that continues that experience but with new and different ways. To navigate purely by spatial audio cues is one thing but what about if you can exert some influence on the environment around you like crossed pedestrian crossings? I’m curious about it’s application and seeing how it would rolled out. Here’s a link to the original article: Dreamwaves: augmented reality with virtual 3D-sound to help guide the blind