AnkleType: A Hands- and Eyes-free Foot-based Text Entry Technique in Virtual Reality
Xiyun Luo, Weirong Luo, Kening Zhu, Taizhou Chen

TL;DR
AnkleType is a novel VR text entry method using ankle gestures, enabling hands- and eyes-free typing with comparable speeds to traditional methods, suitable for standing and sitting scenarios.
Contribution
This work introduces AnkleType, the first ankle-based gesture system for eye-free text entry in VR, optimized through user studies and designed for both sitting and standing use.
Findings
Average typing speed of 16.70 WPM with BPSit in visual condition
Average typing speed of 12.87 WPM with BPSit in eyes-free condition
Supports effective hands- and eyes-free text entry in VR environments.
Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) emphasizes immersive experiences, while text entry often requires hands or visual attention, which may disrupt the interaction flows in VR. We present AnkleType, a hand- and eye-free text-entry technique that leverages ankle-based gestures for both standing and sitting situations. We began with two preliminary studies: one investigated the movement range of users' ankles, and the other elicited user-preferred ankle gestures for text-entry-related operations. The findings of these two studies guided our design of AnkleType. To optimize AnkleType's keyboard layout for eye-free input, we conducted a user study to capture the users' natural ankle spatial awareness with a computer-simulated language test. Through a pairwise comparison study, we designed a bipedal input strategy for sitting (BPSit) and a unipedal input strategy for standing (UPStand). Our first in-VR…
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Taxonomy
TopicsInteractive and Immersive Displays · Tactile and Sensory Interactions · Gaze Tracking and Assistive Technology
