Does One Keyboard Fit All? Comparison and Evaluation of Device-Free Augmented Reality Keyboard Designs

Virtual keyboard designs are widely discussed with the increasing prevalence of head-mounted and lightweight Mixed Reality devices. However, isolated design suggestions with distinct implementations may lack comparability in terms of performance, learnability, and user preference. We compare three promising device-free text-entry solutions for Augmented Reality (AR) on the Microsoft HoloLens 2. The virtual keyboards comprise dwell-based eye-gaze input, eye-gaze with pinch-gesture-commit input, and mid-air tap typing on virtual QWERTY-keyboards. We conducted a controlled within-subjects lab experiment with 27 subjects measuring typing performance, task load, usability, and preference across the three keyboards. Users state distinct preferences for the respective keyboards and weight the advantages and disadvantages differently. Considering diverse usage scenarios, subjects would even prefer these input modes over speech or physical keyboard input. The results indicate that virtual keyboard design shall be tailored to individual user preferences. Therefore, this study provides essential insights into designing AR keyboards for heterogeneous user groups.