The visual impact of augmented reality during an assembly task

Many studies have shown the benefits of augmented reality (AR) to improve manufacturing and control processes in industry. However, presentation AR content through optical see-through head-mounted displays may induce unnatural viewing conditions, which consequences on user’s visual system not been investigated yet. This study aimed at assessing whether using instructions guide a manual task, i.e., conditions where user is forced repeatedly look accommodate different planes extract information from both real virtual environments, could potentially impact operators. A before/after design was carried out, asking 26 participants perform Lego assemblies for 30 min with either paper or instructions. The effects compared were evaluated binocular vision, classical optometric measurements, fatigue, Virtual Reality Symptoms Questionnaire. No clinically significant differences measurements (far/near acuity, stereoacuity, phoria, convergence, fusional amplitude, accommodation accommodative convergence) found between instructions, only negligible fatigue symptoms seen specifically AR. Results objective subjective suggest that there no oculomotor that, this specific case use, can be safely used production