VR Glove: A Virtual Input System for Controlling VR with Enhanced Usability and High Accuracy

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is one of the pioneering technologies in the current decade. An increasing number of users are migrating to the virtual world as time progresses. This has led to users desiring more intuitive and natural control for their inputs in the digital world, surpassing the need for traditional input systems such as mouse and keyboard. VR based natural inputs systems are scarce, and the available ones are expensive. Again, very few of them translates the normal hand movements into the virtual control inputs. Therefore, the objective is to design and develop a wearable input system for controlling VR with enhanced usability and high accuracy. To attain this objective, user requirements were firstly elicited through semi-structured interviews. Then, a cost-effective and usable wearable system (VR Glove) was developed based on the revealed requirements for controlling VR. Finally, the system was evaluated with 20 test-participants (novice and expert); and it was found that the VR Glove was usable both to the novice and expert users, though the system was more usable to experts than the novice users. Participants were comfortable with the working mechanism of the proposed VR Glove system and also found the system very responsive.