VRDoc: Gaze-based Interactions for VR Reading Experience

TL;DR

VRDoc introduces gaze-based interaction techniques to significantly improve the efficiency and user experience of reading in virtual reality environments, addressing a key challenge in VR productivity tools.

Contribution

The paper presents novel gaze-based interaction methods for VR reading, including document selection, text enhancement, and scrolling, implemented on commodity VR headsets with eye-tracking.

Findings

VRDoc improves reading efficiency in VR (p < 0.01)

VRDoc reduces reading effort (p < 0.01)

Users prefer VRDoc tools over existing VR reading methods

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) offers the promise of an infinite office and remote collaboration, however, existing interactions in VR do not strongly support one of the most essential tasks for most knowledge workers, reading. This paper presents VRDoc, a set of gaze-based interaction methods designed to improve the reading experience in VR. We introduce three key components: Gaze Select-and-Snap for document selection, Gaze MagGlass for enhanced text legibility, and Gaze Scroll for ease of document traversal. We implemented each of these tools using a commodity VR headset with eye-tracking. In a series of user studies with 13 participants, we show that VRDoc makes VR reading both more efficient (p < 0.01 ) and less demanding (p < 0.01), and when given a choice, users preferred to use our tools over the current VR reading methods.