1.1.3. Space Perception

Definition of Space Perception

"Space perception is a process through which humans and other organisms become aware of the relative positions of their own bodies and objects around them. Space perception provides cues, such as depth and distance, that are important for movement and orientation to the environment. " (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Humans perceive their environment with various senses. The following senses are responsible for the space perception:

• Sight
• Hearing
• Touch
• Smell

Perception is important for our sense of orientation. Without perception we would not be able to orientate us in the environment and without orientation we are not able to navigate through the space. Therefore, perception is the basis for navigation.
The following paragraphs introduce the four senses that are responsible for space perception. Examples illustrate the use of the senses in real space.

Sight

The most important sense for orientation is the sight. You see objects and you are geared to them. Especially when being on the way and looking for a specific route or destination you orientate yourselve using your eyes. Have a look at the following example which shows the 360° view on top of the Rossstock, a mountain in Switzerland. You can navigate by clicking and panning the image.

Navigation with the eyes (Wipf 2006)

Hearing

You perceive with your ears as well. The nature is full of sounds: Ripple of water, singing birds, chirping crickets, ringing church bells, engine noise of the cars, etc. Each sound defines a special area. For example hearing the engine noise of cars means that a street must be very close, the ringing of the church bells are a sign for a near village, etc. The direction where the sound comes from indicates the location of the area. Explore the sound of different areas in the next example. Click on the icons and listen to the sound that is played.

Navigation with the ears

Smell

The nature is not only full of sounds but also full of odours. You can for example smell the odour of a barbecue or of a bakery from a distance. When you smell such an odour you know that the origin of the odour must be quite close to you. Perhaps you can also identify the direction where the odour comes from.
Because we cannot visualise odours with the computer we count on your imagination for the next example. It shows a small extract of a village. There are three squares marked with red strokes. Move the mouse cursor over these squares to view the odours that are hidden behind these objects. All these odours are perceivable several meters away from the objects.

Navigation with smell

Touch

Perhaps you sometimes do not realise it but you orientate yourselve often with touching. Most of the time, you touch with your hands to guess an object, but your feet as well give feedback about the features of an object. For example feeling a hard surface under your feet gives you the security to be on a stony ground. You do not know if you are on a man-made street or a natural rock, but you know for sure that you are NOT in the meadow. Especially for blind people, the touch is the most important sense for orientation. Additional aids such as white canes facilitate the orientation with touch.

Navigation with touch

The ears, the touch and the smell are the most important senses for visually impaired people since they cannot or can hardly use their eyes.

Orientation Problems

Orientation problems arise whenever our surroundings have very few objects which can be used to get our bearings, for example on unknown terrain, in darkness, in the desert or at sea. To be able to orientate us in such terrains, different navigation techniques with different tools emerged. (Studio 7.5 2002)

One of those tools is the map which is a miniature and abstract portrayal of reality (Studio 7.5 2002). They help us to get our bearings because they show the world from a bird's eye view. The next chapter introduces more tools that are used for navigation.