Efficient typing on a visually occluded keyboard
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
5-2017
Department
Department of Computer Science; Center for Human-Centered Computing
Abstract
The rise of affordable head-mounted displays (HMDs) has raised questions about how to best design user interfaces for this technology. This paper focuses on the use of HMDs for home and office applications that require substantial text input. A physical keyboard is a familiar and effective text input device in normal desktop computing. But without additional camera technology, an HMD occludes all visual feedback about a user's hand position over the keyboard. We describe a system that assists HMD users in typing on a physical keyboard. Our system has a virtual keyboard assistant that provides visual feedback inside the HMD about a user's actions on the physical keyboard. It also provides powerful automatic correction of typing errors by extending a state-of-the-art touchscreen decoder. In a study with 24 participants, we found our virtual keyboard assistant enabled users to type more accurately on a visually-occluded keyboard. We found users wearing an HMD could type at over 40 words-per-minute while obtaining an error rate of less than 5%.
Publication Title
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Recommended Citation
Walker, J.,
Li, B.,
Vertanen, K.,
&
Kuhl, S. A.
(2017).
Efficient typing on a visually occluded keyboard.
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 5457-5461.
http://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025783
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/1106