Thumb Gesture: A Novel Bimanual Text Entry Method in Virtual Reality

Text input is an important task in the VR environment, but it is still inefficient and difficult. We propose a new technique named 2-Thumbs Typing (2TT) enabling text entry with a touchpad in HTC VIVE controller to support two-handed input and make text entry easy and efficient. Users can touch a controller to start the input while finishing by releasing both thumbs. The technique can recognize the gestures users draw in the two touchpads. We first design a set of ambiguous 2-thumbs unistroke gestures and improve them to finish the final design by a user study to between memory, performance efficiency and ease of use. In our study, we conclude that the 2TT technique is an efficient text entry method in VR environments. No additional equipment is required and 2TT method supports eyes-free entry. 2TT can reach 8.5 words per minute with extensive training. In addition, subjective feedback from users shows that 2TT is easy to learn and use, with less fatigue than one-hand gesture text entry and controller pointing text entry. The experimental results have reference significance for the text entry design based on the input mode of two-handed selection in VR.