Understanding Walking and Reading with Smart Glasses and Mobile Phones: A Dual-Task Paradigm

Technology advancements such as smart glasses offer novel opportunities to interact with technology on-the-go. This study examined use of two types of smart glasses (Everysight Raptor and Vuzix m100) for reading during walking and compared to a mobile phone. Fifty-two healthy adults performed single-task and dual-task walking and reading in one of two environments. Objective measures included gait speed and variability and reading speed and comprehension, and subjective measures included workload and usability. Results indicated that when using smart glasses, participants walked slower and with larger gait variability, read less text and had lower comprehension scores across both environments. Participants perceived the glasses as less usable and more demanding than the phone, with no differences between the two types of glasses. This work provides a benchmark for the negative impact of using smart glasses during walking indoors and outdoors. Potential implications are higher risk for community ambulation, suggesting a need for consideration of human attentional capacity when designing smart glasses interfaces and future urban environments.