User acceptance of augmented reality glasses in comparison to other interaction methods for controlling a hand exoskeleton

Abstract

Every year, several hundred thousand people suffer a stroke often leading to long-term motor disabilities that impair their quality of life. In this context, hemiplegia including paralysis of hand and fingers plays a key role, leaving stroke survivors unable to perform tasks requiring both hands. In case of lesions at the level of the brain stem or the spinal cord, paralysis can also affect both sides resulting in very severe constraints for performing most activities of daily living.

A neural-guided hand exoskeleton can restore motor hand function after a stroke or spinal cord injury. However, controlling such hand exoskeleton raises several challenges related to human-machine interaction. While it should be operated without the user's hands and require as little physical and cognitive strain on them as possible, it should be also as inconspicuous as possible to avoid stigmatization of the users. To tackle these challenges, we conducted a survey among 62 healthy test persons to shed more light on the aspects of user acceptance regarding 12 input and 14 output methods, as well as 3 different application contexts.

We found that there are differences in user acceptance for the various input and output methods between public contexts on the one hand and home and rehabilitation contexts on the other. In general, inconspicuous, handy and widely used devices are preferred in public. Also, we found that spectacle wearers are slightly more open to using AR glasses than non-spectacle wearers.