Dosing distraction in the world of augmented-reality (2 car accidents related to AR)
Two recent case reports are among the first in the medical literature of augmented-reality application-related injuries requiring acute intervention in a trauma center. The first incident involved four passengers in a single vehicle rollover accident, in which the driver, a 19-year-old male was “hunting Pokémon” while driving and found one across the road. In an attempt to “flick his Pokémon ball to capture the Pokémon”, he lost control of his vehicle, rolling it, and ejecting the three other passengers from the bed of the pickup. Luckily a CT scan of the head identified only a small focus of subarachnoid hemorrhage with no evidence of increased intracranial pressure and a Glasgow coma scale of 15, as well as a small laceration of the liver involving the caudate lobe. The second incident was caused indirectly by a Pokémon Go user, as a driver swerved off the road to avoid the distracted pedestrian player. The driver was a 58-year-old woman who presented to the emergency department with multiple pelvic fractures that were treated non-operatively. Two other potentially dangerous scenarios may arise in which distracted users either directly cause injury to non-users (i.e. an accident involving a distracted driver and a pedestrian), or where a non-user may inadvertently injure a distracted user (i.e. an alert driver unable to stop in time when a distracted user rushes out onto a busy street).
Five years ago, only one in three Americans owned a smartphone, and that number has since doubled. Now 46% of all smartphone users say their device is something they “cannot live without.” These applications and mobile devices improve our lives, yet the potential to be consumed by their never-ending distractions might outweigh their benefits, at least until we maintain a digital equilibrium between work and play. Further research is yet to be done on what measures can be taken to ensure the safety of mobile augmented reality applications that promote ambulatory activity and to prevent distraction-related morbidities.
See the full story here: http://blog.oup.com/2016/10/distraction-safety-augmented-reality/