Touchpad in VR: Evaluating input devices in virtual reality

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has gained renewed interest in the consumer market after the technology required for high quality head-mounted displays (HMD) became affordable to mass-produce. VR is able to give the user unique experiences that no other medium can provide, but also requires a new set of design guidelines to create and interact with VR content. One crucial aspect in how we engage with VR applications is the input device. Today’s common input devices are hard to adapt or unintuitive for this new medium. This thesis presents a framework to assist with designing experimental setups for evaluating input devices, both old and new, for different kinds of VR applications. The four main variables in this framework are the VR system, input device characteristics, VR application, and performance metrics. To verify the utility of our framework we use it to design an experimental setup that evaluates the performance and usability of the touchpad as an input device for a VR application focussed on image library management.This setup is then subjected to a user study. The results of that study show that the touchpad is able to provide users an intuitive interface for interacting with a VR image browser, but that multi-touch gestures are harder to perform than expected. Completing this user study demonstrates that the framework can assist in structuring research into input devices for VR.