Augmented Reality Smart Glasses for Industry: How to Choose the Right Glasses

Abstract

Augmented reality smart glasses (ARSG) have been available as a commercial product since 2015. Many potential usage areas have been identified, including industrial use. The needs from industry have evolved, with more emphasis being put on sustainability. While ARSG can help improve efficiency and sustainability, there are also similarly associated costs to their implementation and use. This paper aims to present a process for how to choose ARSG for specific use cases as assembly operator support while considering the sustainability of their implementation. A narrative review of the literature was made to identify the current understanding of the environmental impact of ARSG, as well as what has been considered in regards to ARSG being integrated into a manufacturing environment. The analysis of the literature resulted in a proposed decision process. The decision process serves as a baseline for how to guide the decision of whether ARSG could be a suitable solution and, if so, what aspects to consider in the choosing of the ARSG model. Future work includes collaboration with industry to further improve the decision process based on empirical input.