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Main Authors: Froehlich, Jon E., Fiannaca, Alexander, Jaber, Nimer, Tsaran, Victor, Kane, Shaun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08524
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author Froehlich, Jon E.
Fiannaca, Alexander
Jaber, Nimer
Tsaran, Victor
Kane, Shaun
author_facet Froehlich, Jon E.
Fiannaca, Alexander
Jaber, Nimer
Tsaran, Victor
Kane, Shaun
contents Interactive streetscape mapping tools such as Google Street View (GSV) and Meta Mapillary enable users to virtually navigate and experience real-world environments via immersive 360° imagery but remain fundamentally inaccessible to blind users. We introduce StreetReaderAI, the first-ever accessible street view tool, which combines context-aware, multimodal AI, accessible navigation controls, and conversational speech. With StreetReaderAI, blind users can virtually examine destinations, engage in open-world exploration, or virtually tour any of the over 220 billion images and 100+ countries where GSV is deployed. We iteratively designed StreetReaderAI with a mixed-visual ability team and performed an evaluation with eleven blind users. Our findings demonstrate the value of an accessible street view in supporting POI investigations and remote route planning. We close by enumerating key guidelines for future work.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_08524
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle StreetReaderAI: Making Street View Accessible Using Context-Aware Multimodal AI
Froehlich, Jon E.
Fiannaca, Alexander
Jaber, Nimer
Tsaran, Victor
Kane, Shaun
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
H.5; I.2
Interactive streetscape mapping tools such as Google Street View (GSV) and Meta Mapillary enable users to virtually navigate and experience real-world environments via immersive 360° imagery but remain fundamentally inaccessible to blind users. We introduce StreetReaderAI, the first-ever accessible street view tool, which combines context-aware, multimodal AI, accessible navigation controls, and conversational speech. With StreetReaderAI, blind users can virtually examine destinations, engage in open-world exploration, or virtually tour any of the over 220 billion images and 100+ countries where GSV is deployed. We iteratively designed StreetReaderAI with a mixed-visual ability team and performed an evaluation with eleven blind users. Our findings demonstrate the value of an accessible street view in supporting POI investigations and remote route planning. We close by enumerating key guidelines for future work.
title StreetReaderAI: Making Street View Accessible Using Context-Aware Multimodal AI
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
H.5; I.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08524