Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays allow users to experience digital content in more immersive and engaging ways. To keep the users as immersed in the content as possible, computer scientists .
October 12, 2022
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Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays allow users to experience digital content in more immersive and engaging ways. To keep the users as immersed in the content as possible, computer scientists have been trying to develop navigation and text selection interfaces that do not require the use of their hands.
Instead of pressing buttons on a manual controller, these interfaces would allow users to select texts or perform commands simply by moving their heads or blinking their eyes. Despite the promise of these approaches, today most head-mounted displays still heavily rely on handheld controllers or hand and finger gestures.
Researchers at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and Birmingham City University have recently carried out a study aimed at investigating different hands-free text selection approaches for VR and AR headsets. Their findings, published in a paper pre-published on arXiv, highlight the benefits of some of these approaches, particularly those that enable interactions through eye blinks.
«My group has been engaged in improving text entry for VR/AR over the past six years,» Hai-Ning Liang, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. «Text entry is an important element in the ecosystem of text entry and editing.»
The recent study by Liang and his colleagues builds on some of their previous research focusing on hands-free text entry techniques for VR. In their previous studies, the team found that hands-free techniques could simplify user interactions with VR systems, making entering text more intuitive.
«The main goal of our work is to explore what types of features are suitable for hands-free text selection in VR,» Liang explained. «In this new study, we investigated the potential of hands-free text selection approaches in a controlled lab experiment with 24 participants using a within-subjects experiment design (i.
