Embracing Physical Keyboards for Virtual Reality

Bowman, Doug A.

doi:10.1109/mc.2020.3004605

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Their adoption will inevitably drive a transition from physical to virtual displays [23] and more spatial computing. MR headsets can augment tracked objects [9], peripherals and surfaces [8,42], meaning a physical keyboards form and function could be altered/augmented by such headsets [12]. This is of increasing relevance given the potential for MR to enhance productivity environments in particular, demonstrated both in research [28,65,78] and by industry, for example through the Oculus "infinite office" concept [76].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating and Augmenting Keyboards for Extended Reality with the K eyboard A ugmentation T oolkit

McGill

Brewster

Medeiros

et al. 2022

ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact.

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This article discusses the Keyboard Augmentation Toolkit (KAT), which supports the creation of virtual keyboards that can be used both for standalone input (e.g., for mid-air text entry) and to augment physically tracked keyboards/surfaces in mixed reality. In a user study, we firstly examine the impact and pitfalls of visualising shortcuts on a tracked physical keyboard, exploring the utility of virtual per-keycap displays. Supported by this and other recent developments in XR keyboard research, we then describe the design, development, and evaluation-by-demonstration of KAT. KAT simplifies the creation of virtual keyboards (optionally bound to a tracked physical keyboard) that support enhanced display —2D/3D per-key content that conforms to the virtual key bounds; enhanced interactivity —supporting extensible per-key states such as tap, dwell, touch, swipe; flexible keyboard mappings that can encapsulate groups of interaction and display elements, e.g., enabling application-dependent interactions; and flexible layouts —allowing the virtual keyboard to merge with and augment a physical keyboard, or switch to an alternate layout (e.g., mid-air) based on need. Through these features, KAT will assist researchers in the prototyping, creation and replication of XR keyboard experiences, fundamentally altering the keyboard’s form and function.

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