Awareness of the real-world environment when using augmented reality head-mounted display.

Augmented reality (AR) systems are becoming common tools in industrial workplaces. However, factory workers are still concerned about whether head-mounted display (HMD)-based AR systems distract their awareness of the environment and therefore pose safety risks. The purpose of this study was to assess users' experience of real-world awareness when using an AR system. 19 study participants played a wooden block logic game in a laboratory with three different setups: real, AR and virtual reality (VR). Based on this study, it can be concluded that HMD-based AR systems do not decrease users' awareness of their surroundings if the virtual content is minimal and the task is done while seated. However, it was seen that more research in this area with more interactive virtual content is required. This study is an important step in understanding how AR may affect future work in industrial and safety-critical environments.

User Experience of Augmented Reality System for Astronaut's Manual Work Support.

This paper introduces Augmented Reality (AR) system to support an astronaut's manual work, it has been developed in two phases. The first phase was developed in Europeans Space Agency's (ESA) project called "EdcAR-Augmented Reality for Assembly, Integration, Testing and Verification, and Operations" and the second phase was developed and evaluated within the Horizon 2020 project "WEKIT-Wearable Experience for Knowledge Intensive Training." The main aim is to create an AR based technological platform for high knowledge manual work support, in the aerospace industry with reasonable user experience. The AR system was designed for the Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality platform, and it was implemented based on a modular architecture. The purpose of the evaluation of the AR system is to prove that reasonable user experience of augmented reality can reduce performance errors while executing a procedure, increase memorability, and improve cost, and time efficiency of the training. The main purpose of the first phase evaluation was to observe and get feedback from the AR system, from user experience point-of-view for the future development. The use case was a filter change in International Space Station (ISS)-Columbus mock-up in the ESA's European Astronaut Centre (EAC). The test group of 14 subjects it included an experienced astronaut, EAC trainers, other EAC personnel, and a student group. The second phase the experiment consisted of an in-situ trial and evaluation process. The augmented reality system was tested at ALTEC facilities in Turin, Italy, where 39 participants were performing an actual real astronaut's procedure, the installation of Temporary Stowage Rack (TSR) on a physical mock-up of an ISS module. User experience evaluation was assessed using comprehensive questionnaires, and interviews, gathering an in-depth feedback on their experience with a platform. This focused on technology acceptance, system usability, smart glasses user satisfaction, user interaction satisfaction, and interviews, gathering an in-depth feedback on their experience with a platform. The analysis of the questionnaires and interviews showed that the scores obtained for user experience, usability, user satisfaction, and technology acceptance were near the desired average. Specifically, The System Usability Scale (SUS) score was 68 indicating that the system usability is already nearly acceptable in the augmented reality platform.