KANBrief 2/21
Researchers have been tasked by the BGHW with studying the occupational safety and health issues that must be considered during the use of smart glasses.
Smart glasses have been in use for some years now in a range of sectors, including warehouse logistics, assembly, product planning and as aids during medical interventions, particularly in the context of pilot studies. It is the logistics sector however in which their application has gained considerable momentum in recent years, with large companies implementing the first pilot projects in their operations. A range of benefits are claimed for smart glasses when used for this purpose. These typically include increased efficiency, higher availability and visualization of data, facilitation of inclusion, and the correction and elimination of unfavourable body postures. The range of potential negative impacts of smart glasses, however, is no less broad - i.e. their impacts upon the occupational safety and health of the workers who are to use them in future on a daily basis as work equipment. These aspects include acceptance by workers, exposure to electromagnetic fields, impacts upon the eyes, and scope for distraction indirectly giving rise to an accident risk, for example an increase in falling, slipping and tripping accidents caused by the device’s influence on the wearer’s balance.
Each of these issues raises numerous questions to which clear answers cannot readily be found. This can be seen for example from a selective literature search concerning the acceptance of smart glasses. Some studies have examined the acceptance of smart glasses among the wider population; others their acceptance among students at the university concerned. Few studies have been conducted with experts, such as logistics experts in companies.
Analysis of the overall literature survey results shows that users of smart glasses consider data privacy and protection of wearers’ health to be critical issues. Wearer comfort, a function of the weight of the smart glasses and the arrangements for holding them on the head, is a further frequent subject of criticism. This aspect appears to be associated on different levels with the devices’ acceptance. For example, flexible positioning of the display and a high display resolution are desired by users. They also attach great importance to the information being presented ergonomically: although the principles of software ergonomics are described in general terms in the EN ISO 9241 series of standards and also apply to new media, they present software developers with the challenge of implementing them on a new medium. More than a few developers therefore dismiss these questions. One recommendation resulting from a study by Kim et al. was that the presentation of information should be graphics-based. A survey conducted by Koelle et al. of 51 experts predicts that smart glasses will have met with greater acceptance by 2026. Utility, functionality and ease of use are identified as the most important factors for acceptance in the long term. Remaining usability problems must be addressed by the introduction of new modes of interaction and visualization technology. The issue is however even more complicated. In their study, Terhoeven et al. report that the acceptance of smart glasses depends on the specific application. Whereas workers using smart glasses in order picking tend to have a negative opinion of them, they are regarded positively by workers using them in an assembly application. Wille et al. further observed that the opinion of the new technology depends on the respondents’ affinity to technology in general.
The example of acceptance shows how many questions have yet to be answered. For this reason, Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, the Institute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine (ZfAM), South Bank University London and the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the DGUV (IFA) were tasked some years ago by the German Social Accident Insurance Institution for the trade and distribution industry (BGHW) with conducting the ADAG project (impact of smart glasses on occupational safety and health) in order to find answers to these important questions through studies under real-case conditions. The aim of this project is to provide employees and employers with recommendations for action based on the results, in order for introduction of the new technology to reap economic rewards whilst at the same time assuring compliance with occupational safety and health.
Daniel Friemert
Visiting associate professor in the Faculty of Mathematics and Technology
at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences
friemert@hs-koblenz.de