Design and Test of an adaptive augmented reality interface to manage systems to assist critical missions

TL;DR

This paper introduces an augmented reality user interface with a head-mounted display designed to enhance situational awareness and human efficiency during critical missions involving UAV control in stressful emergency scenarios.

Contribution

It presents a novel AR-based UI for critical operations that integrates contextual information and UAV control, tested in stressful conditions to evaluate effectiveness.

Findings

AR improves situational awareness in critical missions

Participants performed better using AR interface

AR has potential as an emergency response tool

Abstract

We present a user interface (UI) based on augmented reality (AR) with head-mounted display (HMD) for improving situational awareness during critical operation and improve human efficiency on operations. The UI displays contextual information as well as accepts orders given from the headset to control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for assisting the rescue team. We established experiments where people had been put in a stressful situation and are asked to resolve a complex mission using a headset and a computer. Comparing both technologies, our results show that augmented reality has the potential to be an important tool to help those involved in the emergency situation.