Communication quality assessment of an augmented reality system for remote support in intensive care medicine

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) systems can provide remote expert support for safety-critical intensive care workflows. Patient safety depends on reliable audiovisual communication; poor transmission may increase mental workload, reduce comprehension, and promote errors. Because systematic evidence on AR communication performance is limited, we evaluated an AR remote-support system and its clinical suitability. We assessed audio quality, end-to-end latency, and audiovisual synchrony using subjective and objective measures. In a user study (n=10), participants listened to standardized speech under typical intensive-care background noise and rated intelligibility, naturalness, noise perception, listening effort, and overall quality on a five-point Mean Opinion Score (MOS). Latencies were measured with a test signal containing synchronous visual and acoustic markers; sender and receiver views were recorded and aligned using an atomic clock. Marker analysis yielded audio and video latencies under two network conditions; audiovisual synchrony was computed as their difference. Bitrate, packet loss, and jitter were logged and combined with latency measures into an objective MOS. Participants rated audio quality as good (MOS 4.28/5). Audio latencies were 149 (±91) ms and 167 (±60) ms; video latencies were 156 (±64) ms and 186 (±44) ms. Audiovisual synchrony was -10 (±76) ms and 38 (±65) ms. All latencies were below the 250 ms teleconsultation threshold, and synchrony remained within the −188 to 75 ms tolerance for action-oriented tasks, indicating no perceptible asynchronies. The objective MOS was 3.86, corroborating the subjective ratings. Overall, the system meets communication requirements for telemedical remote support and is suitable for pilot clinical deployment.

Keywords: Augmented Reality (AR), Medical Remote Support, Communication Quality Assessment, Performance Evaluation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007808