An Exploration of Hands-free Text Selection for Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays

Hand-based interaction, such as using a handheld controller or making hand gestures, has been widely adopted as the primary method for interacting with both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMDs). In contrast, hands-free interaction avoids the need for users’ hands and although it can afford additional benefits, there has been limited research in exploring and evaluating hands-free techniques for these HMDs. As VR HMDs become ubiquitous, people will need to do text editing, which requires selecting text segments. Similar to hands-free interaction, text selection is underexplored. This research focuses on both, text selection via hands-free interaction. Our exploration involves a user study with 24 participants to investigate the performance, user experience, and workload of three hands-free selection mechanisms (Dwell, Blink, Voice) to complement head-based pointing. Results indicate that Blink outperforms Dwell and Voice in completion time. Users’ subjective feedback also shows that Blink is the preferred technique for text selection. This work is the first to explore handsfree interaction for text selection in VR HMDs. Our results provide a solid platform for further research in this important area.