Evaluating Text Entry in Virtual Reality using a Touch-sensitive Physical Keyboard

Text entry is a challenge for Virtual Reality (VR) applications. In the context of immersive VR Head-Mounted Displays, text entry has been investigated for standard physical keyboards as well as for various hand representations. Specifically, prior work has indicated that minimalistic fingertip visualizations is an efficient hand representation. However, these representations typically require external tracking systems. Touch-sensitive physical keyboards allow for on-surface interaction, with sensing integrated into the keyboard itself. However, they have not been thoroughly investigated within VR. We close this gap by comparing text entry on a standard physical keyboard and a touch-sensitive physical keyboard in a controlled user study (n=26). Our results indicate that text entry using touch-sensitive physical keyboards can be as efficient as the fingertip visualization, but that results vary between experienced and inexperienced typists.