Text Entry in Immersive HMDisplay based VR using Physical and Touch Keyboards

Summary

Virtual reality can simulate large displays anywhere, offering potential for productive work. However, efficient text entry with VR headsets remains a challenge. Current VR systems use hand-held controllers, head, or gaze direction, which are less effective than physical and touch keyboards. Transplanting standard keyboards into VR presents design challenges. This study examines desktop and touch screen keyboards' performance in VR. It finds that while repositioning the virtual keyboard improves touch keyboard performance moderately, it has no effect on physical keyboard performance. Key limitations include restricted vertical field of view and text readability issues at the edges. For detailed results, refer to the paper.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Virtual reality (VR) can simulate large format displays and enable productive work in various locations.
• 🛡️ A significant challenge in VR is efficient text entry while wearing a head-mounted display, as current systems are not as effective as physical keyboards.
• 🔄 The performance and skill transfer of desktop and touchscreen keyboards in VR are not well understood and require further research.
• 🔑 Desktop keyboards offer tactile feedback, while touchscreen keyboards can be reconfigured and support additional interface actions.
• 📝 The paper presents an experiment examining the performance of both desktop and touchscreen keyboards for typing in VR environments.
• 👀 VR head-mounted displays have limitations such as a restricted vertical field of view and degraded text readability at the edges due to lens characteristics.
• 💻 To address these issues, the virtual representation of the keyboard and user's hands is transformed from their physical positions.
• 👁️ Repositioning the virtual keyboard in front of the user's view does not affect the performance of a physical keyboard.
• 📱 The moderate effect on touch keyboard performance suggests that the position of the virtual keyboard can influence typing efficiency on touchscreens.
• 🔍 The study's results and details are available in the full paper, providing insights into optimal VR keyboard design and placement.
• 🔄 The findings imply that the design of VR keyboards and their interaction with physical movements need to be carefully considered for optimal user experience.

Q & A

What is one major hurdle in using virtual reality for productive work?

One major hurdle is efficient text entry while wearing a VR head-mounted display.

What methods do existing consumer virtual reality systems often rely on for text entry?

They often rely on handheld controllers, head, or gaze direction.

Why are handheld controllers, head, or gaze direction limited in performance for text entry in VR?

These methods are limited in performance relative to familiar physical and touch keyboards.

What are two types of keyboards that can be used in virtual reality?

Desktop keyboards and touch screen keyboards.

What advantage does a desktop keyboard provide in virtual reality?

A desktop keyboard provides tactile sensation feedback.

What advantage does a touch screen keyboard offer in virtual reality?

A touch screen keyboard can be easily reconfigured and support additional user interface actions.

What did the experiment in the paper examine?

The experiment examined the performance of desktop and touch screen keyboards for typing in VR.

What makes typing in virtual reality harder according to the script?

The vertical field of view is typically limited relative to a natural field of view, and text readability tends to degrade toward the edges of the virtual reality display due to lens characteristics.

What strategy is suggested to overcome limitations and encourage better posture in VR typing?

Transforming the virtual representation of the keyboard and the user's hands from their physical positions to be in front of the user's view.

What were the findings regarding the repositioning of the virtual keyboard in the experiment?

Repositioning the virtual keyboard to be in front of the user's view had no effect on physical keyboard performance and had a moderate effect on touch keyboard performance.