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A virtual reality keyboard with realistic haptic feedback in a fully immersive virtual environment

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Abstract

This study presents a 3D virtual reality (VR) keyboard system with realistic haptic feedback. The system uses two five-fingered data gloves to track finger positions and postures, uses micro-speakers to create simulated vibrations, and uses a head-mounted display (HMD) for 3D display. When users press a virtual key in the VR environment, the system can provide realistic simulated key click haptic feedback to users. The results of this study show that the advantages of the haptic VR keyboard are that users can use it when wearing HMDs (users do not need to remove HMDs to use the VR keyboard), the haptic VR keyboard can pop-up display at any location in the VR environments (users do not need to go to a specific location to use an actual physical keyboard), and the haptic VR keyboard can be used to provide realistic key click haptic feedback (which other studies have shown enhances user performance). The results also show that the haptic VR keyboard system can be used to create complex vibrations that simulate measured vibrations from a real keyboard and enhance keyboard interaction in a fully immersive VR environment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan for providing support for this research under Contract MOST 104-2221-E-002 -066 -MY2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Chien-Min Wu, Chih-Wen Hsu, Tzu-Kuei Lee & Shana Smith

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  1. Chien-Min Wu
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  2. Chih-Wen Hsu
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  3. Tzu-Kuei Lee
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  4. Shana Smith
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Correspondence to Shana Smith.

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Wu, CM., Hsu, CW., Lee, TK. et al. A virtual reality keyboard with realistic haptic feedback in a fully immersive virtual environment. Virtual Reality 21, 19–29 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-016-0296-6

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