Keycube is a Kind of Keyboard (k ³ )

Abstract

Alternate realities through headsets, such as augmented, mixed and virtual reality are becoming part of people's everyday life. Except in some limited context, usual keyboards are inappropriate for such technological medium and alternative interfaces for text-entry must be explored. In this paper we present the keycube, a general-purpose cubic handheld device that goes beyond the textentry interface by including multiple keys, a touch-screen, an inertial unit with six degrees-offreedom and a vibrotactile feedback. Strong of its form factor and affordance, the keycube offers advantages with regards to mobility, comfort, learnability, privacy and playfulness. Thus, the combination creates a novel text-entry interface convenient for many use cases across the whole reality-virtuality continuum.

Keycube: Text Entry Evaluation with a Cubic Device

“…Three keycube prototypes were built following the keycube concept [4]. A hand wrist and neck strap were added to the structure for safety and to easily free up the hands.…”

“…Thus, the use of traditional keyboards is also explored [12,16], offering the advantage of usually being already mastered, but is limited to some situations where users are mostly immobile, seated and requiring a flat surface. To overcome these constraints, we tested the keycube [4] (Figure 1), which is a text entry approach that works by disposing multiple keys on a cubic tangible device. The keycube aims to offer the same flexibility (large quantity and size of keys as well as eye-free and multiple fingers ability) and tactile feedback as the traditional keyboard adopted for long text entry while bringing mobility benefits and more freedom of postures.…”

Extended Reality for Knowledge Work in Everyday Environments

“…For example, using a circular keyboard that can be controlled via head-motion [102] or a pizza-layout using dual thumbsticks [104]. Instead of keyboards, different devices for text entry were explored, like a cube with keys [14], a ring worn on the index finger [43], a circular touchpad [49] or a glove that uses chords to represent letters.…”