Design and evaluation of a versatile text input device for virtual and immersive workspaces

ABSTRACT

While headsets dedicated to mixed reality are increasingly considered to virtualize workspaces in the office, the keyboard remains mostly unchanged and nevertheless is still envisioned as an interface for common professional activities heavily demanding in text entry. However, unlike headsets, a keyboard is intrinsically limited to immobile context during its use, due to the need for physical support. In this article, we investigate a radical change in the structural shape of the keyboard, switching from the plane to a cube, allowing users to fully benefit from their whole environment by entering text in a much wider variety of contexts. We designed a cubic layout based on the QWERTY and results from two user studies to define the best holding position as well as fingers preferences and reachability to the cubic shape. Then, we conducted two subsequent user studies and one longitudinal case study to compare and evaluate typing skill transfer from the keyboard, learning curve, fingers usage, usability, and workload in various contexts. The cubic-shaped text entry device finally showed its versatility with users having similar performances while standing with a mixed-reality headset or sitting in front of a laptop, and an input speed from an expert reaching 55.1 wpm.

KEYWORDS:

• augmented reality
• headset
• text entry
• cube
• design
• evaluation

Acknowledgments

We thank all the participants from the user studies and all publication support and staff who wrote and provided helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

All experiments have been approved by the TELUQ (Université du Québec à) Ethics Review Committee, number 2018265 and all participants voluntarily signed dedicated consent forms.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2024.2352705

Notes

¹ When I’m Back at a Keyboard, by Randall Munroe, published July 29, 2019 at https://xkcd.com/2182.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Damien Brun

Damien Brun completed his PhD in cognitive computing at the TELUQ (Canada) and Le Mans University (France), then, joined the User Experience Group as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lapland (Finland). He is now an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics from Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. His research interests include augmented, mixed and virtual reality, text entry, mobile and wearable technologies that induce or facilitate human movements.

Charles Gouin-Vallerand

Charles Gouin-Vallerand is an Associate Professor in Information Technology and researcher at the Centre de Createch sur les Organisations Intelligentes and at the DOMUS laboratory at Université de Sherbrooke. His research interests focus on ubiquitous computing, context-aware computing, mobile computing, augmented reality and human-computer interactions.

Sébastien George

Sébastien George is a Full Professor of Computer Science since 2013 at Le Mans Université, France. He teaches at the Computer Science Department of the Institute of Technology of Laval and he is at the head of LIUM Laboratory. He is particularly interested in applications integrating innovative Human Machine Interactions in the context of education and training (serious games, mixed reality).