New Delhi : Researchers from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Dr. Richa Gupta and Dr. Anmol Srivastava, have received the Qualcomm XR University Research Grant 2026 for their project titled “PathSense: Behavior-Informed Auditory Augmented Reality Framework to Support Allocentric Indoor Navigation of Large Spaces for Blind and Low-Vision Users in India.”
Dr. Richa Gupta is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project, while Dr. Anmol Srivastava is the Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI). The research has been awarded a grant of approximately ₹62 lakh for a period of three years.
The project focuses on how Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) can help blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals find their way around large indoor spaces on their own. It will look at how they understand their surroundings without visual cues and how different forms of non-visual information can help them make sense of indoor spaces and navigate them independently.
The research aims to develop a behaviour-informed framework for representing environmental information through multimodal interaction. It will study how BLV users perceive and interpret different non-visual representations of indoor spaces, with the aim of generating empirical evidence to inform the design of future Auditory Augmented Reality (AAR) systems for accessible navigation in India.
Commenting on the grant, Dr. Richa Gupta, Principal Investigator of the project and faculty member at IIIT-Delhi, said, “For someone who is blind or has low vision, navigating a large indoor space can involve challenges that people with sight may not always notice. Through PathSense, we want to understand how people with visual impairments perceive and make sense of the spaces around them, and what kind of information can help them navigate with greater independence. This grant will allow us to study these experiences in greater depth and build research-based insights that can guide the development of more accessible navigation systems.”
Dr. Anmol Srivastava, Co-Principal Investigator of the project and faculty member at IIIT-Delhi, added, “One of the important aspects of this research is understanding how environmental information should be communicated when visual cues are not available. It is not simply about providing directions, but about helping users build an understanding of the space they are moving through. We hope that the findings from PathSense will inform the design and development of future Auditory Augmented Reality (AAR) systems and provide valuable insights into creating more accessible and inclusive Extended Reality (XR) experiences.”
This research also has relevance beyond indoor navigation. Its findings could be useful in other areas of XR research, including multimedia rendering, spatial computing and multimodal interaction design. They will help researchers understand how information about the environment can be shared with users through different forms of interaction.
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