Spatial augmented reality

Abstract

Spatial Augmented Reality (sAR) as an assistive technology is a promising tool for experienced and novice industrial workers. Five industrial case studies in Dutch manufacturing companies are described to study the effects of sAR assistance on task completion time, learning speed, product quality, work load, technology acceptance and employability in manual assembly guidance and training. Although case study outcomes were rather positive and user acceptance was high, 2 out of 5 use case companies decided not to invest in this technology after the initial pilot project. The main barriers for implementation were concerns about the relatively high system costs, the initial instruction programming time and the required expertise to do so. Future system developments should improve the system's usability from a business process engineering perspective and thereby support zero programming of sAR systems and adaptive work instructions.