Evaluating Impacts of Head Worn Displays on Teamwork in Emergency Response: Review of Challenges for the Field

Abstract

Head Worn Displays (HWDs) are increasingly used to support mobile workers across diverse domains. However, little is known about how HWDs affect teamwork in safety-critical contexts. We conducted a narrative review examining the effects of HWDs on teamwork performance and team processes of situation awareness, communication, and coordination for emergency response. HWDs appear to improve the quality of team performance but increase time to perform under some conditions; effects on team processes are also mixed. It is difficult to compare results across studies due to the diverse technologies, contexts, and measures used. Successful design, evaluation, and deployment of HWDs in emergency response contexts may require a stronger foundation of theory-driven and process-based research. Perspectives such as joint cognitive systems, distributed cognition, and common ground may help researchers uncover mechanisms by which HWDs shape teamwork processes and how team processes affect team performance over time.