Envisioning Audio Augmented Reality in Everyday Life

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of audio augmented reality (AAR) in daily life, identifying key roles and design considerations through ethnography and surveys, and proposing a framework for future AAR systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework categorizing AAR roles in everyday contexts, emphasizing design challenges and opportunities for context-aware audio augmentation.

Findings

Identified ten roles for AAR in daily life

Mapped roles onto rhythms of everyday routines

Highlighted tensions in balancing distraction blocking and social presence

Abstract

While visual augmentation dominates the augmented reality landscape, devices like Meta Ray-Ban audio smart glasses signal growing industry movement toward audio augmented reality (AAR). Hearing is a primary channel for sensing context, anticipating change, and navigating social space, yet AAR's everyday potential remains underexplored. We address this gap through a collaborative autoethnography (N=5, authoring) and an online survey (N=74). We identify ten roles for AAR, grouped into three categories: task- and utility-oriented, emotional and social, and perceptual collaborator. These roles are further layered with a rhythmic and embodied collaborator framing, mapping them onto micro-, meso-, and macro-rhythms of everyday life. Our analysis surfaces nuanced tensions, such as blocking distractions without erasing social presence, highlighting the need for context-aware design. This paper contributes a foundational and forward-looking framework for AAR in everyday life, providing design groundwork for systems attuned to daily routines, sensory engagement, and social expectations.