We have developed an application on Google Glass for use in emergency

departments in hospitals. Specifically, the application provides a Heads-Up

Display (HUD) to an emergency doctor, displaying relevant data related to

certain patients.

Over the last few years, mobile computing devices have quickly become a

integral of many consumers lives. Indeed, smartphones, which are appropriately regarded as handheld computers, allow the user to browse the

internet, do some social networking, send email and take pictures, all on a

small device perfect for carrying around at all times. Wearable computers,

such as Google Glass, form the next iteration of mobile computing, bringing

entirely new possibilities to light. These possibilities revolve around the

concept of augmented reality (AR), where the user's perception of the

environment is "augmented" by a computer-generated sensory input [1]. In

our case, augmented reality is provided by a set AR glasses, which enable the

user to interact with a head-mounted heads-up display without clouding the

users view.

In the light of this new form of technology, some industries are still lagging

behind when it comes to communication, notably the health care industry.

Currently, many doctors still use pagers as a primary means of

communication. In fact, inefficiencies due to the use of pagers cost American

hospitals $8.3 billion every year in lost productivity and increased patient

discharge times [2]. Indeed, the potential savings in patient wait times and

productivity could led to significantly positive outcomes, especially in

emergency medicine, where waiting times can be critical.

INTRODUCTION

The first step in the project was to obtain a device on which the AR

application could be designed. At the time, several companies were

developing AR glasses, so a particular device was to be selected. Among the

requirements for such a device were device availability, ease of development,

hardware features/performance and price [3]. In the end, Google Glass was

decided as the most suitable device for this project.

The application required the acquisition of a Google Glass unit, which had

been obtained in late 2013. Until that time, most of the development was

entirely theoretical.

The development and testing stage of the design were performed using

standard practices for Android development. Since Google Glass development

borrows heavily from the existing Android ecosystem, the Glass application

was designed using Android Developer Tools (ADT), a development

environment suited for developing applications on the Android platform. ADT

allowed for easier layout design and provided insight into the inner workings

of the application.

For purposes of demonstration, a smartphone is connected to the Glass unit,

permitting remote control over the operation of the Glass. Hence, the Glass

could be controlled even without direct possession of one. Moreover, the

screencasting capability of the Glass, paired with pre-existing tools for

broadcasting a smartphone UI, allows for the Glass UI, and therefore the

application, to broadcast on a large monitor.

METHODS

FLOWCHART

CONCLUSIONS

We have created an application on Google Glass allowing emergency doctors

to look up information about their patients. Due to the interest that this

project has garnered, augmented reality indeed has very appealing

applications in the medical world. We hope to see it play an even bigger role

as more capable devices enter the market.

Indeed, AR can be extended for many more uses, including: interfacing with

medical equipment (e.g. reading directly from an medical monitor), being

used as a visual aid (e.g. placing an overlay of a patients X-ray scan on the patients body), or identifying patients using facial recognition.

REFERENCES

[1] D. Cassella, "What is Augmented Reality (AR): Augmented Reality Defined, iPhone

Augmented Reality Apps and Games and More," Digital Trends, 3 November 2009. [Online].

Available: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-augmented-reality-iphone-apps-games-

flash-yelp-android-ar-software-and-more. [Accessed 1 April 2014].

[2] V. Kopytoff, "Where pagers haven't gone extinct yet," CNN Money, 16 July 2013. [Online].

Available: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/16/where-pagers-havent-gone-extinct-yet/.

[Accessed 1 April 2014].

[3] S. Hill, "A Look at all the Google Glass competitors in development," Digital Trends , 22

August 2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/google-glass-alternatives/.

[Accessed 1 April 2014].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to our collaborators at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital

without which this project would likely not have taken off:

Dr. Alan Azuelos

Dr. Joel Turner

Dr. Wayne Choi

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montral, Qubec, Canada

Payom Meshgin, under the supervision of Prof. Warren Gross

Medical Applications of Augmented Reality Glasses

SCREENSHOTS

At application launch, the application waits for the user to issue a valid voice

command, and behaves according to the command. The implemented voice

commands are:

CBC [patient #]

Vitals [patient #]

Electrolytes [patient #]

Take note [patient #], message [note content]

Each of the commands is related to a particular database query to be

executed on the database server. However, for security reasons, the database

server is not directly accessible from the device. Therefore, any database

queries are to pass through a PHP script. Hence, the application must first

send HTTP messages to the PHP server where the script is run in order to

send queries or retrieve results from the database.

All query results are parsed by the PHP server into a JSON (JavaScript Object

Notation) object which is decoded by the application and thus can be

processed to achieve correct behavior.

FUNCTIONALITY

4 April 2014 ECSE 499 HonoursThesis II