The article kind of dismissed Microsoft Soundscape as a failure, but for blind people who want awareness of what is around I still don't think there has been anything that beats it. I work on one of it's successors, Soundscape Community [0]. It is based on the code Microsoft released as open source when they shut down the project.

[0] https://github.com/soundscape-community/soundscape/

The problem with all implementations so far is they are slow, verbose, and clunky.

People working on these projects should study pre-digital forms of non-written communication. Commodities exchange pit floor hand signals. Pilot-ATC comms. Military radio. Etc.

If I want Audio AR, I want it to be like a co-pilot flying a jet with me. Crisp, concise, zero fluff.

Make it a slider for people who want to get chatted up vs those that don't.

(2020)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11726740B2/en?oq=US-1172...

(2022)

https://photos.icloud.com/shared/album/0bcjn4GtAKvPziPqWKZqR...

I was bracing a bit before clicking the link thinking about chances that this is about KU100 and 3Dio Free Space selling to consumers, not exactly like hotcakes but like nicer winter overcoats or more premium lawnmowers. OK, we're not there yet.

Aar is a welcome enhancement (that has its own, but potentially less privacy issues than video capture). There's a whole set of aar enabled glasses that focus more on the user via audio rather than reckless complete video capture like so many "smart" pervert glasses being shilled by large advertising companies.