An application of augmented reality to thickness inspection
Kyung Ho Chung, John P. Shewchuk, Robert C. Williges · Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries · 1999
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the use of augmented reality (AR) for thickness inspection of manufactured parts. The inspection task consisted of determining the thickness of flat-bottomed parts via measurements, taken at predetermined locations and in a specified sequence, using a vernier height gage. Inspectors wore a head-mounted AR display, which superimposed information over the surface of the part indicating where measurements were to be taken and in what sequence. Experiments were performed to compare the AR-aided inspection method to traditional computer-aided and manual inspection methods. Results indicated that while all three methods were similar in terms of accuracy, AR-aided inspection was 2–3 times faster than the other methods. Additionally, while inspection time increased with part shape complexity for the manual and computer-aided methods, it was virtually unaffected by part shape complexity for AR-aided inspection. These results indicate the potential use of augmented reality to improve the performance of manual inspection tasks substantially when task-specific information must be conveyed to the operator. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.