Publication Date

2022

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Hwang, Jaejin

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming popular in the workplace recently. Text entry is thus now important for efficient office use and occupational use of VR, and VR paired with a conventional keyboard is suitable for long text entry. There has been a lack of research on physical demand, posture, motion, and cognitive demand, along with the performance of typing on VR. Presence of virtual hands while typing in VR may affect typing performance, physical demand, and posture. The focus of this study was to evaluate the biomechanical effect of hand representation for typing on VR using a conventional keyboard. Fifteen subjects with almost similar levels of typing expertise participated in typing tasks in randomized order on a VR-keyboard setup with and without virtual hands and on a laptop using the same keyboard. Neck, shoulder, and wrist joint angles, hand trajectory parameters, neck muscle activity, and subjective measures were assessed. The result showed virtual hand representation had a significant effect on VR typing for cognitive and physical benefits. Moreover, the performance of VR typing also became comparable to no VR typing by using virtual hand representation. Future study is needed to evaluate the long-term typing effect and a large range of typists' expertise. This study would help to improve the keyboard's design, and it would guide to lessen the cognitive load and physical discomfort of VR typing.

Extent

72 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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