REACHING FOR HOLOGRAMS : ASSESSING THE ERGONOMICS OF THE MICROSOFT™ HOLOLENS™ 3D GESTURE KNOWN AS THE "AIR TAP"

This paper assesses the ergonomics of the air tap, a 3D gesture used to interact with the Hololens™, a head-mounted optical see-through display being developed by Microsoft™. After reviewing ergonomics literature we found the air tap appeared to be outside of known anthroprometric and biomechanical limits and tolerances. Because the Hololens was unavailable for testing at the time of writing, the air tap was evaluated using methods that support general, observational data. The Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), Rapid Upper Body Assessment (RULA) and Novel Ergonomic Postural Assessment (NERPA) methods were used to assess the gesture as observed in four videos. For all methods, higher scores suggested further investigation was required to avoid risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. Although the neck trunk and leg portion of the REBA score was low, the arm and wrist portions gained more points. This was further reflected in overall high RULA and NERPA scores which focused more on the upper region of the body. Although these findings cannot be used to accurately assess whether the air tap suffers from poor ergonomics or puts the user at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders, they do suggest the gesture might benefit from a more thorough investigation. This paper concludes by proposing future research into developing and validating an ergonomic framework designers and developers can use to develop 3D gestures.