From: owner-3dui@hitl.washington.edu on behalf of Laura Arns
[arns@vrac.iastate.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 4:18 PM
To: 3dui List
Subject: Re: text/number input in VEs

One of my co-workers here at VRAC implemented a system for a PDA which
allows the user to interact with the virtual world using a full
windowing system on the PDA. Text and numeric entry is fairly easy for
small amounts of data, such as precisely specifying position or size of
an object. Writing pages of information could be difficult though. The
system also allows a variety of other interaction abilities beyond
text/numeric input. This works great with our CAVE-like environments,
but (as Doug points out) would be hard to use with an HMD! I believe he
also did a user study as part of his Master's work. 
project description:
www.vrac.iastate.edu/research/stools/jaive/homepage/
thesis: www.public.iastate.edu/~lchill/thesis/thesis.html

Laura Arns
Virtual Reality Applications Center, Iowa State Univ.
arns@vrac.iastate.edu

Doug Bowman wrote:
>You could also hold a
> real PDA in your hand, but it would be difficult to place the
> stylus in the correct position since you couldn't see the PDA
> (assuming an HMD-based system).