From: owner-3dui@hitl.washington.edu on behalf of Lorenzo Pastrana
[lpastrana@altern.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 4:19 PM
To: 3dui List
Subject: Re: text/number input in VEs


mmhh was intended to reply at the list but, I found out that the reply-to adress
is the sender's one... (bug/feature?)

Well I was pointing at this system (not knowing what pinch keyboard was) since
the quickwriting principle deploys in a restrictive circular area and could very
simply implemented with a couple of joysticks (no pda needed)... witch could be
kept handy (needs a support though.. -> belt?), visual feedback is straight
forward as well.

Anyway, if i can dare a question, what do you mean by "move your hands in and
out" is that an "event verb" gesture or it is a linear tracking as could be
whist flexion tracking?

Have you tryed to implement sutch a system in an assymetric way (guitar player
style)? I mean high frequency input (typing/picking) with major hand and low
frequency input (row/chord selection) with minor hand? whis would imply a
different ordering of letters but could lead to good virtuosity rates ;) (sounds
funny but I'm serious...)

Lorenzo.


> Thanks for the pointer to Quikwriting - I wasn't aware of it.
> (Also thanks to Lorenzo Pastrana, who pointed out the same
> site.) I think that such a system might be able to work on
> a pen & tablet setup, but it would still have to be large
> in order to minimize tracking areas. 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).
>
> The pinch keyboard that we did doesn't involve handwriting at
> all. It uses pinch gloves to simulate a QWERTY keyboard, so
> users can transfer their existing knowledge of the keyboard
> layout. You pinch the finger that would normally type a letter
> (e.g. left pinky finger for 'a') to the thumb on the same
> hand. To change rows, you move your hands in and out (hands
> are tracked). Visual feedback shows which letters can be typed
> at any time based on the tracking info.
>
> You can get more information on this project at:
> http://www.cs.vt.edu/~bowman/3di/text_input.html
> There are some papers and a video linked at the bottom of the
> page.
>
> --Doug
>
> --
> Doug A. Bowman, Ph.D. (540) 231-2058
> Assistant Professor   (540) 231-6075 (fax)
> Computer Science      bowman@vt.edu
> Virginia Tech       www.cs.vt.edu/~bowman/
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-3dui@hitl.washington.edu
> > [mailto:owner-3dui@hitl.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Sébastien Kuntz
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 9:15 AM
> > To: 3dui List
> > Subject: Re: text/number input in VEs
> >
> >
> > Hello!
> >
> > could you point me to information about the keyboards you're talking
> > about?
> >
> > you could use the grafitti system used for palms, but Ken Perlin
> > has something of lots interest on his web page. It's called
> > quickwriting,
> > and is actually used for pocket PCs, but I think this could be easily
> > adapted to VEs.
> >
> > "Quikwriting is significantly faster and less stressful to use than
> > Graffiti, and lets you write very quickly without ever picking your
> > stylus up off the surface, although it has the disadvantage that you
> > need to learn a special alphabet"
> >
> > http://mrl.nyu.edu/projects/quikwriting/
> >
> > what do you think of that?
> >
> > --
> > Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere
> > in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
> > -- Calvin
>