Augmented Reality Eyewear with ophthalmic correction for mainstream applications, overcoming acceptance barriers through Human Factors Plan

Abstract

Although more than 80% of human interactions with the world transit through our eyes and most daily activities require hands-on interaction, none of the current AR technologies and designs, mainly from the USA and Asia, has unlocked the essential combination of human-centred needs, technical requirements and market and society acceptance. Massive adoption, especially for extensive population usage, faces significant bottlenecks: insufficient optical quality, low visual, vestibular, cognitive and social comfort, and missing integrated ophthalmic correction or device aesthetics; the only way to enhance AR visual experience.EU POPULAR project is developing the first generic Augmented Reality Eyewear (ARE) platform covering the broadest range of users and use cases in a professional context, leisure or daily life, including personal ophthalmic correction. The ordinary-looking glasses will be comfortable, accessible and aesthetically appealing, making them suitable for all-day use. Moreover, privacy and security issues will be covered to ensure user, stakeholders, and society acceptance. The differential factors will be its compactness and invisible technology, optical quality, ultra-low power consumption and long operation times, integrating cost-efficiency aspects.To achieve this challenging aim, IBV has defined a Human Factors (HF) Plan covering visual comfort, vestibular comfort, mental fatigue, ease of use, freedom of movement, emotional reaction, risk of exclusion and societal acceptance. The HF Plan was defined in 3 sprints: 1) gather needs, risks analysis and conceptual design, 2) design, develop and iterative tests `process, from scratch and dummy prototypes to 4 functional prototypes (combining white/back or colour AR and without/with ophthalmic correction, 3) Final Validation in actual conditions along representative use cases. The HF Plan will be supported by a Social Science and Humanities Advisory Board and aligned with MDR protocols and processes.ARE acceptance and global scalability will be demonstrated in 3 realistic use case scenarios, outdoor sports, healthcare and logistics, as the first step to massive market deployment. The validation in real situations will include innovative methodologies to real-time asses of mental status to balance the loss of attention/distraction and cognitive overload, using eye tracking patterns and physiological response analysis.

Keywords: Extended Reality, Human Factors Plan, Holography, Corrective Lenses, Sports, Healthcare, Industry 5.0

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005068