Industrial process tomography (IPT) is a specialized imaging technique widely used in industrial scenarios for process supervision and control. Today, augmented/mixed reality (AR/MR) is increasingly being adopted in many industrial occasions, even though there is still an obvious gap when it comes to IPT. To bridge this gap, we propose the first systematic AR approach using optical see-through (OST) head mounted displays (HMDs) with comparative evaluation for domain users towards IPT visualization analysis. The proof-of-concept was demonstrated by a within-subject user study (n=20) with counterbalancing design. Both qualitative and quantitative measurements were investigated. The results showed that our AR approach outperformed conventional settings for IPT data visualization analysis in bringing higher understandability, reduced task completion time, lower error rates for domain tasks, increased usability with enhanced user experience, and a better recommendation level. We summarize the findings and suggest future research directions for benefiting IPT users with AR/MR.

翻译：工业过程层析成像（IPT）是一种在工业场景中广泛用于过程监控与控制的专业成像技术。尽管增强现实/混合现实（AR/MR）技术正逐步应用于诸多工业领域，但其在IPT领域仍存在明显应用空白。为填补这一空白，我们首次提出了系统性的增强现实方法——采用光学透视头戴显示器（OST HMDs），并对领域用户在IPT可视化分析中的表现进行对比评估。通过受试者内设计（n=20）的平衡用户实验验证了该概念验证方案，同时开展了定性与定量测量。结果表明，相较于传统方案，我们的AR方法在IPT数据可视化分析中展现出显著优势：提升数据可理解性、缩短任务完成时间、降低领域任务错误率、增强可用性与用户体验满意度，并获更高推荐等级。我们总结研究结果，并提出了面向AR/MR赋能IPT用户的未来研究方向。