Hands-Free is Fine: Evaluating Wrist-Rotation-Based Text Entry for Virtual Reality

Text entry remains a critical challenge in Virtual Reality (VR), where traditional physical keyboards are often unavailable and ray-casting methods can lead to user fatigue. To address this, we introduce CrossKeys, an innovative one-handed text entry method that utilizes the rotational degrees of freedom of a single VR controller.

By mapping wrist rotation to a structured virtual keyboard, CrossKeys enables users to select characters through intuitive tilting motions rather than expansive arm movements. Key features and findings from our evaluation include:

• Wrist-Rotation Mechanism: Uses a single controller's orientation to navigate a segmented key layout, minimizing physical effort.
• Efficiency and Accuracy: A comparative user study demonstrated that CrossKeys achieves competitive typing speeds and high accuracy for both short phrases and long-form text.
• Reduced Fatigue: Unlike ray-casting, which relies on prolonged shoulder and arm elevation, CrossKeys leverages fine motor skills in the wrist to significantly lower the perceived physical demand.
• One-Handed Utility: The system is designed for a single-controller setup, making it ideal for mobile VR environments or users with limited mobility.

Our results suggest that wrist-rotation-based entry provides a viable, low-fatigue alternative for VR interaction, balancing speed with improved user comfort.