While visual search for targets within a complex scene might benefit from using augmented-reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMD) technologies helping to efficiently direct human attention, imperfectly reliable automation support could manifest in occasional errors. The current study examined the effectiveness of different HMD cues that might support visual search performance and their respective consequences following automation errors. Fifty-six participants searched a 3D environment containing 48 objects in a room, in order to locate a target object that was viewed prior to each trial. They searched either unaided or assisted by one of three HMD types of cues: an arrow pointing to the target, a plan-view minimap highlighting the target, and a constantly visible icon depicting the appearance of the target object. The cue was incorrect on 17% of the trials for one group of participants and 100% correct for the second group. Through both analysis and modeling of both search speed and accuracy, the results indicated that the arrow and minimap cues depicting location information were more effective than the icon cue depicting visual appearance, both overall, and when the cue was correct. However, there was a tradeoff on the infrequent occasions when the cue erred. The most effective AR-based cue led to a greater automation bias, in which the cue was more often blindly followed without careful examination of the raw images. The results speak to the benefits of augmented reality and the need to examine potential costs when AR-conveyed information may be incorrect because of imperfectly reliable systems.

翻译：复杂场景中的目标视觉搜索可从增强现实头戴显示器技术中获益，该技术能有效引导人类注意力，但可靠性不足的自动化辅助可能偶发错误。本研究考察了不同头显线索对视觉搜索性能的支持效果及其在自动化错误后的相应后果。56名参与者在包含48个物体的三维场景中搜索目标物体——每次试验前均需预先识别目标。他们分别采用无辅助搜索或三种头显线索辅助：指向目标的箭头、突出标记目标的俯视图小地图、持续显示目标外观的图标。其中一组参与者在17%的试验中遭遇错误线索，另一组则获得100%正确线索。通过对搜索速度和准确率的分析及建模，结果表明：无论是整体表现还是线索正确时，标注位置信息的箭头和小地图线索均比标注视觉外观的图标线索更为有效。然而在线索偶发错误时存在权衡：最有效的增强现实线索导致更强的自动化偏差，表现为参与者更易盲目跟随线索而疏于仔细核查原始图像。本研究揭示了增强现实技术的优势，同时强调需审视当系统可靠性不足导致增强现实信息可能出错时潜在代价的重要性。