Applications of Smart Glasses in Applied Sciences: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The aim of this study is to review academic papers on the applications of smart glasses. Among 82 surveyed papers, 57 were selected through filtering. The papers were published from January 2014 to October 2020. Four research questions were set up using the systematic review method, and conclusions were drawn focusing on the research trends by year and application fields; product and operating system; sensors depending on the application purpose; and data visualization, processing, and transfer methods. It was found that the most popular commercial smart glass products are Android-based Google products. In addition, smart glasses are most often used in the healthcare field, particularly for clinical and surgical assistance or for assisting mentally or physically disabled persons. For visual data transfer, 90% of the studies conducted used a camera sensor. Smart glasses have mainly been used to visualize data based on augmented reality, in contrast with the use of mixed reality. The results of this review indicate that research related to smart glasses is steadily increasing, and technological research into the development of smart glasses is being actively conducted.

Keywords

• smart glasses
• head-mounted display
• wearable device
• augmented reality
• mixed reality