Exploring the Design Space of Optical See-through AR Head-Mounted Displays to Support First Responders in the Field

TL;DR

This study explores the design space of optical see-through AR head-mounted displays for first responders, revealing role-specific needs, user preferences, and concerns to guide future AR system development in hazardous environments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of first responders' experiences and preferences, offering new design guidelines for AR HMDs tailored to their urgent and risky scenarios.

Findings

Role-specific AR design preferences identified

Concerns about trust, privacy, and integration raised

Design guidelines for future AR systems developed

Abstract

First responders (FRs) navigate hazardous, unfamiliar environments in the field (e.g., mass-casualty incidents), making life-changing decisions in a split second. AR head-mounted displays (HMDs) have shown promise in supporting them due to its capability of recognizing and augmenting the challenging environments in a hands-free manner. However, the design space have not been thoroughly explored by involving various FRs who serve different roles (e.g., firefighters, law enforcement) but collaborate closely in the field. We interviewed 26 first responders in the field who experienced a state-of-the-art optical-see-through AR HMD, as well as its interaction techniques and four types of AR cues (i.e., overview cues, directional cues, highlighting cues, and labeling cues), soliciting their first-hand experiences, design ideas, and concerns. Our study revealed both generic and role-specific preferences and needs for AR hardware, interactions, and feedback, as well as identifying desired AR designs tailored to urgent, risky scenarios (e.g., affordance augmentation to facilitate fast and safe action). While acknowledging the value of AR HMDs, concerns were also raised around trust, privacy, and proper integration with other equipment. Finally, we derived comprehensive and actionable design guidelines to inform future AR systems for in-field FRs.