Abstract

The surge of COVID-19 has introduced a new threat surface as malevolent actors are trying to benefit from the pandemic. Because of this, new information sources and visualization tools about COVID-19 have been introduced into the workflow of frontline practitioners. As a result, analysts are increasingly required to shift their focus between different visual displays to monitor pandemic related data, security threats, and incidents. Augmented reality (AR) smart glasses can overlay digital data to the physical environment in a comprehensible manner. However, the real-life use situations are often complex and require fast knowledge acquisition from multiple sources. In this study we report results from an experiment with six subjects using an AR overlaid information interface coupled with traditional computer monitors. Our goal was to evaluate a multi tasking setup with traditional monitors and an AR headset where notifications from the new COVID-19 MISP instance were visualized. Our results indicate that better situational awareness does translate to increased task performance, but at the cost of a gender gap that requires further attention.