Photo-enriched Documentation during Surgeries with Google Glass: An Exploratory Usability Study in a Department of Paediatric Surgery

Abstract

Due to hygienic regulations and mobility requirements, medical professionals show great interest in wearable devices allowing for hands-free interaction and ubiquitous information access. Smartglasses like the prototype “Google Glass” have already been evaluated in pre-hospital as well as clinical medical care. Based on laboratory studies according to the reliability of voice and gesture recognition and field studies during four surgeries in the department of paediatric surgeries, we discuss usability and acceptance of smartglasses for photo-enriched documentation during surgeries. While technical limitations (e. g. poor camera quality) have to be overcome, usable solutions for human-smartglasses interaction by voice and gesture recognition seem to be possible midterm. Surgeons and other members of surgical teams are curious about smartglasses in their working environment. This can be a starting point for a wider use, if user interface and interaction design for smartglasses are further explored and developed in a user-centered process meeting their requirements. In this regard, transmodal consistency is recommended as a design principle for applications supporting multiple input and output modalities.