Designing turn-by-turn navigation system for customized wearable user interface

Abstract

Current technological advancements in wearable intelligence allow us to migrate assistant tools from portable devices to wearable devices. Many researches with varying performance outcomes have been conducted on wearable navigation devices. However, there is no existing Bluetooth-supported turn-by-turn navigation application which supports biker and cyclist with customized wearable user interface. The purpose of this research is to try and fill this gap by investigating the usability of indicator-based smart glasses in real-world bike navigation using Bluetooth for communication. Adopting the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, a mobile navigation application was developed that could be used with a customized wearable user interface called indicator-based smart glasses, with Bluetooth communication. Moreover, we conducted a usability test with six users in a real biking navigation task. Two paths were selected as the experiment’s environment in Oulu, Finland. We recorded the experiment’s process by a camera. And collected the feedbacks from participants by post-questionnaires. As the results, we found that the glasses can assist user accomplish navigation tasks in simple traffic without many wrong turns. However, it cannot provide clear instructions under some complex traffic.

This research can be extended in future researches by implementing a solution that provides turn-by-turn direction in the navigation application for the indicator-based smart glasses under complex traffic circumstance.