Mid Sweden University

Digital technology offers multimodal presentation of information, that can be used for translating foreign languages or for alleviating hearing impairment or deafness communication problems. Today, there exists various aids that can be used for speech-to text translations, but there are some challenges with these. One potential solution for this is to make use of a combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and speech-to-text systems, where speech is converted into text that is then presented in AR-glasses. In AR, one crucial problem is the legibility and readability of text under different environmental conditions. Different types of AR glasses have different ergonomic characteristics, which implies that certain glasses might be more suitable for such a system than others. In this investigation, two different AR-glasses were evaluated based on among other things their optical, visual, and ergonomic characteristics. User tests were conducted to evaluate the legibility and readability of text under different environmental contexts. The results indicate that legibility and readability are affected by factors such as ambient illuminance, background properties and how the text is presented with respect to polarity, opacity, size, and number of lines. The characteristics of the glasses impacts the user experience, but which glasses that is preferred depends on the individual.