A Field Study of Multi-User Augmented Reality to Facilitate Collaborative Ship Navigation.

Area of Science:

• Maritime Safety
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Collaborative Systems

Background:

• Effective collaboration is vital for safety-critical maritime operations.
• Augmented Reality (AR) presents a potential tool to enhance team coordination and decision-making at sea.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the utility of AR features in facilitating collaboration during ship navigation.
• To identify specific AR functionalities that improve team situation awareness and decision-making.

Main Methods:

• A prototype AR system was tested in a simulated ship navigation environment.
• User feedback and performance metrics were collected to evaluate AR's impact on collaboration.

Main Results:

• AR features, such as point of interest (POI) pins and shared visual cues, improved situation awareness and information gathering.
• Multi-user AR enhanced visual communication and team situation awareness.
• Potential disadvantages include overreliance, cognitive overload, and moderate usability challenges.

Conclusions:

• AR technology shows promise for improving collaboration and safety in ship navigation, particularly in time-critical scenarios.
• Further advancements in AR accuracy, usability, and unobtrusiveness are recommended for broader implementation.