From: owner-3dui@hitl.washington.edu on behalf of Doug Bowman
[bowman@vt.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 8:36 AM
To: 3dui List
Cc: Chris Rhoton
Subject: text/number input in VEs

Greetings everyone!

It's been awfully quiet on the 3DUI list lately. I wanted to
remind everyone that the list is here and still active. There
are lots of you out there - consider sending a message to the
list updating us on your current research, asking a question,
or raising a topic for discussion!

Along those lines, let me suggest a discussion topic. I've
been working on methods for entering text and numeric data
in immersive VEs where no standard keyboard is available. You
may have seen the Pinch Keyboard technique we presented at
HCI International 2001. I'm firmly convinced that such techniques
are necessary and useful in many VE applications, but others
apparently don't see the need. What do you think? Is text/
number entry an important task for immersive VEs? Why or why not?

On a related note, I'm looking for references in this area. I
know about Ivan's virtual notepad, and several other "virtual
keyboards" (not used in VEs, but could be applied there). 
Has anyone used a chord keyboard, soft keyboard, or speech for 
text/number entry in an immersive VE? Any usability or performance
results?

We're currently doing a study comparing the pinch keyboard with
a Twiddler 2 chord keyboard and a soft keyboard using the pen &
tablet technique.

Thanks,
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/