Application Scenarios of Smart Glasses in the Industrial Sector

Abstract

Many companies in the industrial sector are currently facing massive changes in order to optimize processes and enable new customer demands (e. g. mass customization of products). Often, these changes are related to a modernization of existing infrastructure to enable cyber-physical systems and smart factories (so called Industry 4.0). These structural changes have effects on business processes and business models. Consequently, the factory workers need to adapt to the changing infrastructure and therefore, it is necessary to analyze how factory workers can be supported during their day-to-day work in the changed environment. Thus, an important aspect is the analysis of human computer interaction interfaces which aim at assisting factory workers. One promising human computer interface solution between cyber-physical systems and factory workers are smart glasses, as this technology is suited for assisting humans hands-free. Since prior research on application scenarios of smart glasses in the industrial sector is limited, the aim of our research is to identify relevant application scenarios. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative, explorative study by interviewing 21 domain experts. Based on this, we derived 15 application scenarios which can be used by both, research and practice, to develop and evaluate new human computer interaction interfaces for industrial applications.