Given the aging highway infrastructure requiring extensive rebuilding and enhancements, and the consequent rise in the number of work zones, there is an urgent need to develop advanced safety systems to protect workers. While Augmented Reality (AR) holds significant potential for delivering warnings to workers, its integration into roadway work zones remains relatively unexplored. The primary objective of this study is to improve safety measures within roadway work zones by conducting an extensive analysis of how different combinations of multimodal AR warnings influence the reaction times of workers. This paper addresses this gap through a series of experiments that aim to replicate the distinctive conditions of roadway work zones, both in real-world and virtual reality environments. Our approach comprises three key components: an advanced AR system prototype, a VR simulation of AR functionality within the work zone environment, and the Wizard of Oz technique to synchronize user experiences across experiments. To assess reaction times, we leverage both the simple reaction time (SRT) technique and an innovative vision-based metric that utilizes real-time pose estimation. By conducting five experiments in controlled outdoor work zones and indoor VR settings, our study provides valuable information on how various multimodal AR warnings impact workers reaction times. Furthermore, our findings reveal the disparities in reaction times between VR simulations and real-world scenarios, thereby gauging VR's capability to mirror the dynamics of roadway work zones. Furthermore, our results substantiate the potential and reliability of vision-based reaction time measurements. These insights resonate well with those derived using the SRT technique, underscoring the viability of this approach for tangible real-world uses.

翻译：鉴于老化高速公路基础设施需要进行大规模重建和升级，以及由此导致的施工区数量增加，迫切需要开发先进的安全系统来保护工人。尽管增强现实（AR）在向工人传递警告方面具有巨大潜力，但其在道路施工区中的整合仍相对未经探索。本研究的主要目标是通过全面分析不同多模态AR警告组合如何影响工人的反应时间，从而改善道路施工区的安全措施。本文通过一系列旨在复现道路施工区独特条件的实验（在真实世界和虚拟现实环境中进行）来填补这一空白。我们的方法包含三个关键组成部分：一个先进的AR系统原型、施工区环境中AR功能的VR模拟，以及用于跨实验同步用户体验的“绿野仙踪”技术。为了评估反应时间，我们利用了简单反应时间（SRT）技术以及一种基于实时姿态估计的创新视觉度量方法。通过在受控室外施工区和室内VR环境中进行五项实验，我们的研究提供了关于各种多模态AR警告如何影响工人反应时间的宝贵信息。此外，我们的研究结果揭示了VR模拟与现实场景之间反应时间的差异，从而评估了VR模拟道路施工区动态的能力。进一步地，我们的结果证实了基于视觉的反应时间测量的潜力和可靠性。这些见解与使用SRT技术得出的结果高度一致，突显了该方法在实际应用中的可行性。