Virtual hands: a comparative study of two text input paradigms for VR

Typing is still the primary input modality for computing systems. Most typical Virtual Reality (VR) setups replace users' capable hands and fingers with cumbersome hand-held controllers (HC). This study examines the hypothesis that finger interaction and realistic representation of users' hands increases typing performance, sense of Presence, and the usability of a typing system for a text transcription task in VR. We developed a hand and finger tracking and visualization system (VH) aimed to help users interact with on-screen keyboards in VR, and compared participants typing performance using HC. We found that the VH paradigm in VR significantly increased typing performance for inexperienced typists and that HC users were more prone to commit errors. Further research may delve deeper into the utility of VH input paradigm for people unable to grasp HCs and for other symbolic communications such as sign language.

Design choices: Empirical recommendations for designing two-dimensional finger-tracking experiments

The continuous tracking of mouse or finger movements has become an increasingly popular research method for investigating cognitive and motivational processes such as decision-making, action-planning, and executive functions. In the present paper, we evaluate and discuss how apparently trivial design choices of researchers may impact participants’ behavior and, consequently, a study’s results. We first provide a thorough comparison of mouse- and finger-tracking setups on the basis of a Simon task. We then vary a comprehensive set of design factors, including spatial layout, movement extent, time of stimulus onset, size of the target areas, and hit detection in a finger-tracking variant of this task. We explore the impact of these variations on a broad spectrum of movement parameters that are typically used to describe movement trajectories. Based on our findings, we suggest several recommendations for best practice that avoid some of the pitfalls of the methodology. Keeping these recommendations in mind will allow for informed decisions when planning and conducting future tracking experiments.

Inertial Sensor Based Solution for Finger Motion Tracking

Hand motion tracking plays an important role in virtual reality systems for immersion and interaction purposes. This paper discusses the problem of finger tracking and proposes the application of the extension of the Madgwick filter and a simple switching (motion recognition) algorithm as a comparison. The proposed algorithms utilize the three-link finger model and provide complete information about the position and orientation of the metacarpus. The numerical experiment shows that this approach is feasible and overcomes some of the major limitations of inertial motion tracking. The paper’s proposed solution was created in order to track a user’s pointing and grasping movements during the interaction with the virtual reconstruction of the cultural heritage of historical cities.