RotateEntry: Controller-rolling-style Text Entry for Three Degrees of Freedom Virtual Reality Devices
Raycasting is the mainstream solution for text entry on virtual reality devices. For a
keystroke, a raycasting-style text input method requires a user to aim at a particular key on the virtual
keyboard in space by holding up the controller. In this way, the user might feel muscle fatigue after
long-time use. In this work, we propose RotateEntry, a controller-rolling-style method for text entry
on three degrees of freedom virtual reality devices. To move the key-selecting cursor in two dimensions
on a QWERTY layout virtual keyboard, we developed three variants of RotateEntry: Rotate Column
Rotate, Rotate Key, and Rotate Column Point. We conducted a comparative empirical evaluation of
the four text input methods, including three proposed controller-rolling-style text input methods and
the standard raycasting-style one. Text entry performance, accuracy, workload, usability, and user
experience were tested and evaluated. Due to the COVID-19 situation, our study was conducted
remotely. The impact of using online formats on VR research had also been assessed. After evaluating
with 5 participants, we identified that Rotate Key had a higher text entry rate, outstanding overall user
experience, and excellent overall workload performance among the three variants of RotateEntry.
However, no evidence had been investigated to support the hypothesis that RotateEntry had better
performance and experience compared to Raycasting.