Pain is a protective perceptual response shaped by contextual, psychological, and sensory inputs that suggest danger to the body. Sensory cues suggesting that a body part is moving toward a painful position may credibly signal the threat and thereby modulate pain. In this experiment, we used virtual reality to investigate whether manipulating visual proprioceptive cues could alter movement-evoked pain in 24 people with neck pain. We hypothesized that pain would occur at a lesser degree of head rotation when visual feedback overstated true rotation and at a greater degree of rotation when visual feedback understated true rotation. Our hypothesis was clearly supported: When vision overstated the amount of rotation, pain occurred at 7% less rotation than under conditions of accurate visual feedback, and when vision understated rotation, pain occurred at 6% greater rotation than under conditions of accurate visual feedback. We concluded that visual-proprioceptive information modulated the threshold for movement-evoked pain, which suggests that stimuli that become associated with pain can themselves trigger pain.

This paper presents the use of a projector-based spatial augmented reality system in an industrial quality assurance setting to highlight spot-weld locations on vehicle panels for manual welding operators. The aim of this work is to improve the precision and accuracy of manual spot-weld placements with the aid of visual cues as a proactive step by the automotive manufacturer to enhance product quality. The prototype system was deployed at General Motors (GM) Holden plant in Elizabeth, Australia on the production line building Holden Cruze vehicles. Production trials were conducted and techniques developed to analyse and validate the precision and accuracy of spot-welds both with and without the visual cues. A reduction of 52 % of the standard deviation of manual spot-weld placement was observed when using augmented reality visual cues. The average standard deviation with-AR assistance (19 panels and 114 spot-welds) was calculated at 1.94 mm compared to without-AR (45 panels and 270 spot-welds) at 4.08 mm. All welds were within the required specification and panels evaluated in this study were used as the final product made available to consumers. The visual cues enabled operators to spot-weld at a higher degree of precision and accuracy.

This paper presents the results of two cognitive load studies comparing three augmented reality display technologies: spatial augmented reality, the optical see-through Microsoft HoloLens, and the video see-through Samsung Gear VR. In particular, the two experiments focused on isolating the cognitive load cost of receiving instructions for a button-pressing procedural task. The studies employed a self-assessment cognitive load methodology, as well as an additional dual-task cognitive load methodology. The results showed that spatial augmented reality led to increased performance and reduced cognitive load. Additionally, it was discovered that a limited field of view can introduce increased cognitive load requirements. The findings suggest that some of the inherent restrictions of head-mounted displays materialize as increased user cognitive load.

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