Augmented Reality Communication on Active Construction Sites: A Pilot Study Exploring Non-Technological Factors

The construction industry requires effective communication between project stakeholders in various locations, which has traditionally been facilitated through in-person site visits or phone calls. These methods can lead to wasted time driving to remote sites for in-person visits or misunderstandings from omitting critical site details on phone calls. Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to enable a consistent understanding of site conditions provided through in-person meetings with the efficiency of phone calls. However, the majority of studies exploring AR in construction present results from controlled implementations or laboratory environments. Conversely, this investigates AR calls between practitioners on active construction sites to identify factors and behaviors relevant to successful use of AR in real workspace. Furthermore, interviews with participants enabled the authors to understand the perceptions of the practitioner participants that may have guided their behavior. The results helped explore about six drawbacks of AR application in real workspaces and their associated solutions. Manipulation, color of annotation feature, and the time needed to upload large files are examples of the experimented drawbacks. Practising, training sessions, and the use of other available colors for annotation are explored solutions to overcome some of the revealed drawbacks. By altering their behavior and with more practice and repetition, users overcame some of the explored challenges. These findings will inform researchers and practitioners interested in using AR to effectively support communication on construction projects.