Immersive Text Entry…

Virtual Reality (VR) has progressed significantly since its conception in 1965, enabling previously impossible applications such virtual prototyping, telepresence, and augmented reality. However, one of the classic problems with this technology is data entry; with a head-mounted display (HMD) the user can no longer see the keyboard. Although for many applications of this technology data entry is not a requirement, for some it is essential: leaving an annotation for the designer in an architectural walkthrough or entering a filename to which work can be saved.

While research has been completed with the aim of guiding designers of VR systems in areas such as travel, selection and system control, much research is still required for text input. Command line input is still the UI technique of choice for computer "power users", and we believe that effective data entry techniques are of great importance to the wider adoption of VR as a technology.

Combining 3D hardware (5DT Dataglove) with predictive spelling and a graphically represented keyboard, and intuitive interaction techniques, we have created a text entry technique for immersive environments that is both intuitive and efficient.

By exploring the key issues when using such a technique, we hope to develop a methodology, which will guide designers of data input driven VR immersive environments.