Usage patterns of Head-mounted vision assistance app as compared to handheld video Magnifier

Abstract

PurposeTo investigate whether head-mounted vision assistance devices may address a different set of visual needs as compared to handheld video magnifiers. MethodsDaily app usage data (e.g. launch frequency, duration, among others) across 8 months was collected from tens of thousands global active users of two mobile vision assistance apps: handheld Supervision Magnifier (SVMag) and head-mounted Supervision Goggles (SVGoggles). The scene targets viewed during app use were analyzed by a cloud-based object recognition service, and then grouped into 11 categories. ResultsOn average SVMag (6.9 ± 0.38 launches/user/month) was used more frequently per user than the SVGoggles (4.6 ± 0.91 launches/user/month). About 44 % and 55 % of SVMag and SVGoggles users, respectively, launched the app only once or twice per month, and about 5 % of users launched either app more than 20 times per month. The duration of each use instance was ≤ 3 min for 76 % and 80 % of launches of SVGoggles and SVMag, respectively. Based on the chi-square distance, the distribution of the viewing targets for SVGoggles was significantly different from that of the SVMag app (χ2 = 71.3, df = 10, p < 0.001). SVGoggles was used less frequently for viewing text, but more frequently for viewing indoor scenes and humans than SVMag. ConclusionThe relatively low app usage and different viewing targets with the SVGoggles app indicate that head-mounted visual aids are probably used for a set of niche visual tasks different for that with handheld visual aids. Head mounted vision assistance should be one of the options in low vision rehabilitation.