Augmented Reality “Smart Glasses” in the Workplace: Industry Perspectives and Challenges for Worker Safety and Health

Abstract

There are several potential benefits of using a head-worn device or wearable display (e.g., Google glass), including facilitating hands-free work and the capability to provide real time/up-to-date information. Depending on the level of software sophistication, there is also the potential to provide information visually and aurally: 1) showing information such as item name and/or image, quantity, and location, 2) help in locating items, 3) help in detecting errors, 4) providing new or continuation training for employees, etc. The use of a wearable display, therefore, may have important current and future implications in several industrial sectors. In fact, wearable displays are receiving increasing attention, with some applications being reported and others in development. We are beginning a research effort to guide and develop the standards and recommendations that facilitate the safe adoption and use of wearable display in practice. As the first step in this, we are talking with several industry representatives such as yourself, to gain industry perspective on wearable display with focus on safety and health.

Barriers to the Adoption of Wearable Sensors in the Workplace: A Survey of Occupational Safety and Health Professionals

“…Although we did not provide a specific definition of wearable technology and/or personal activity monitors to respondents, some questions and the list of possible responses provided context to the respondents that we were generally defining wearable technologies in this study as devices similar to personal activity monitors. Additional research is needed to evaluate perceptions of using other forms of wearable technology such as augmented reality headsets (Kim, Nussbaum, & Gabbard, 2016;Wiedenmaier, Oehme, Schmidt, & Luczak, 2003), exoskeletons (Bosch, van Eck, Knitel, & de Looze, 2016;de Looze, Bosch, Krause, Stadler, & O'Sullivan, 2016;de Looze, Krause, & O'Sullivan, 2017), and smartphones (Amick, Chaparro, Patterson, & Jorgensen, 2015;Boissy et al, 2017;Nath, Akhavian, & Behzadan, 2017;Yang, Grooten, & Forsman, 2017) in the workplace as their functionality and practicality continue to increase.…”

The role of big data analytics in industrial Internet of Things

“…The technology ecosystem underpinning IIoT is mainly the integration of cyberphysical systems (CPS) [1], Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing [2][3][4], automation (e.g. intelligent robots in product assembly lines) [5], Internet of services [6], wireless technologies, augmented reality [7] and concentric computing [8], amongst others. Advances in such related areas as IoT, big data analytics (BDA), cloud computing and CPS have fuelled the formation of IIoT activities to deliver unprecedented flexibility, precision and efficiency to manufacturing processes [9,10].…”

Towards Next Generation Technical Documentation in Augmented Reality Using a Context-Aware Information Manager

“…This might allow the use of some specific user interfaces for conveying information while making impossible or dangerous to use some others. For example, some application environments may not require great attention to the real world, while others may be critical or dangerous tasks, allowing attention loss on reality for just a few seconds [6].…”