{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115994"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115994","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"MusiKeys: Exploring Auditory-Physical Feedback Replacement for Mid-Air Text-Entry","abstract":"Extended reality (XR) technology is positioned to become more ubiquitous in life and the workplace in the coming decades, but the problem of how to best perform precision text-entry in XR remains unsolved. Physical QWERTY keyboards are the current standard for these kind of tasks, but if they are recreated virtually, the feedback information from sense of touch is lost. We designed and ran study with 24 participants to explore the effects of using auditory feedback to communicate this missing information that typists normally get from touching a physical keyboard. The study encompassed four VR mid-air keyboards with increasing levels of auditory information, along with a fifth physical keyboard for reference. We evaluated the auditory augmentations in terms of performance, usability, and workload, while additionally assessing the ability of our technique to communicate the touch-feedback information. Results showed that providing clicking feedback on key-press and key-release improves typing compared to not providing auditory feedback, which is consistent with literature on the topic. However, we also found that using audio to substitute the information contained in physical-touch feedback, in place of actual physical-touch feedback, yielded no statistically significant difference in performance. The information can still be useful, but potentially would take a lot of time to develop the muscle memory reflexes that typists already have when using physical keyboards to type. Nonetheless, we recommend others consider incorporating auditory feedback of key-touch into their mid-air keyboards, since it received the highest levels of user preference among keyboards tested.","abstract_html":"Extended reality (XR) technology is positioned to become more ubiquitous in life and the workplace in the coming decades, but the problem of how to best perform precision text-entry in XR remains unsolved. Physical QWERTY keyboards are the current standard for these kind of tasks, but if they are recreated virtually, the feedback information from sense of touch is lost. We designed and ran study with 24 participants to explore the effects of using auditory feedback to communicate this missing information that typists normally get from touching a physical keyboard. The study encompassed four VR mid-air keyboards with increasing levels of auditory information, along with a fifth physical keyboard for reference. We evaluated the auditory augmentations in terms of performance, usability, and workload, while additionally assessing the ability of our technique to communicate the touch-feedback information. Results showed that providing clicking feedback on key-press and key-release improves typing compared to not providing auditory feedback, which is consistent with literature on the topic. However, we also found that using audio to substitute the information contained in physical-touch feedback, in place of actual physical-touch feedback, yielded no statistically significant difference in performance. The information can still be useful, but potentially would take a lot of time to develop the muscle memory reflexes that typists already have when using physical keyboards to type. Nonetheless, we recommend others consider incorporating auditory feedback of key-touch into their mid-air keyboards, since it received the highest levels of user preference among keyboards tested.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Krasner, Alexander Laurence"],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"masters","degree_discipline":"Computer Science and Applications","degree_department":"Computer Science and Applications","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":["Gabbard, Joseph L."],"committee_members":["Bowman, Douglas A.","Jeon, Myounghoon"],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-08-07","date_published":"2023-08-07","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:19:21Z","subjects":["Extended Reality","Virtual Reality","Mid-air Text-Entry","Auditory Feedback","Feedback Replacement","Sensory Substitution"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International"],"rights_urls":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["vt_gsexam:38211"],"render_values":[{"text":"vt_gsexam:38211","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115994","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeechair","label":"Committee Chair","values":["Gabbard, Joseph L."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Bowman, Douglas A.","Jeon, Myounghoon"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Computer Science and Applications"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Krasner, Alexander Laurence"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2023-08-08T08:00:17Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-08-08T08:00:17Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2023-08-07"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science and Applications"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["masters"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Extended Reality","Virtual Reality","Mid-air Text-Entry","Auditory Feedback","Feedback Replacement","Sensory Substitution"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["vt_gsexam:38211"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115994"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Extended reality (XR) technology is positioned to become more ubiquitous in life and the workplace in the coming decades, but the problem of how to best perform precision text-entry in XR remains unsolved. Physical QWERTY keyboards are the current standard for these kind of tasks, but if they are recreated virtually, the feedback information from sense of touch is lost. We designed and ran study with 24 participants to explore the effects of using auditory feedback to communicate this missing information that typists normally get from touching a physical keyboard. The study encompassed four VR mid-air keyboards with increasing levels of auditory information, along with a fifth physical keyboard for reference. We evaluated the auditory augmentations in terms of performance, usability, and workload, while additionally assessing the ability of our technique to communicate the touch-feedback information. Results showed that providing clicking feedback on key-press and key-release improves typing compared to not providing auditory feedback, which is consistent with literature on the topic. However, we also found that using audio to substitute the information contained in physical-touch feedback, in place of actual physical-touch feedback, yielded no statistically significant difference in performance. The information can still be useful, but potentially would take a lot of time to develop the muscle memory reflexes that typists already have when using physical keyboards to type. Nonetheless, we recommend others consider incorporating auditory feedback of key-touch into their mid-air keyboards, since it received the highest levels of user preference among keyboards tested."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstractgeneral","label":"General Abstract","values":["Extended reality (XR) refers to technology that allows users to either immerse themselves in virtual worlds or incorporate virtual objects into the real world. 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Results showed that providing clicking feedback on key-press and key-release improves typing compared to not providing auditory feedback, which is consistent with literature on the topic. However, we also found that using audio to substitute the information contained in physical-touch feedback, in place of actual physical-touch feedback, yielded no statistically significant difference in performance. The information can still be useful, but potentially would take a lot of time to develop the muscle memory reflexes that typists already have when using physical keyboards to type. Nonetheless, we recommend others consider incorporating auditory feedback of key-touch into their mid-air keyboards, since it received the highest levels of user preference among keyboards tested."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Master of Science"]},{"key":"dc:format.medium","label":"Dc Format Medium","values":["ETD"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["MusiKeys: Exploring Auditory-Physical Feedback Replacement for Mid-Air Text-Entry"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.committeechair":["Gabbard, Joseph L."],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Bowman, Douglas A.","Jeon, Myounghoon"],"dc:contributor.department":["Computer Science and Applications"],"dc:creator":["Krasner, Alexander Laurence"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2023-08-08T08:00:17Z"],"dc:date.available":["2023-08-08T08:00:17Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2023-08-07"],"dc:description.abstract":["Extended reality (XR) technology is positioned to become more ubiquitous in life and the workplace in the coming decades, but the problem of how to best perform precision text-entry in XR remains unsolved. 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However, we also found that using audio to substitute the information contained in physical-touch feedback, in place of actual physical-touch feedback, yielded no statistically significant difference in performance. The information can still be useful, but potentially would take a lot of time to develop the muscle memory reflexes that typists already have when using physical keyboards to type. Nonetheless, we recommend others consider incorporating auditory feedback of key-touch into their mid-air keyboards, since it received the highest levels of user preference among keyboards tested."],"dc:description.abstractgeneral":["Extended reality (XR) refers to technology that allows users to either immerse themselves in virtual worlds or incorporate virtual objects into the real world. XR is positioned to become more ubiquitous in life and the workplace in the coming decades, but the problem of how to best perform precision text-entry in XR remains unsolved. Physical QWERTY keyboards are the current standard for these kind of tasks, but if they are recreated virtually, the information inherent to sense of touch is lost. We designed and ran study with 24 participants to explore the effects of using auditory feedback to communicate this missing information that typists normally get from touching a physical keyboard. The study encompassed four virtual reality (VR) mid-air keyboards with increasing levels of auditory information, along with a fifth physical keyboard for reference. We evaluated the auditory augmentations in terms of performance, usability, and workload, while additionally assessing the ability of our technique to communicate the touch-feedback information. Results showed that providing clicking feedback on key-press and key-release improves typing compared to not providing auditory feedback, which is consistent with literature on the topic. However, we also found that using audio to substitute the information contained in physical-touch feedback, in place of actual physical-touch feedback, yielded no statistically significant difference in performance. The information can still be useful, but potentially would take a lot of time to develop the muscle memory reflexes that typists already have when using physical keyboards to type. Nonetheless, we recommend others consider incorporating auditory feedback of key-touch into their mid-air keyboards, since it received the highest levels of user preference among keyboards tested."],"dc:description.degree":["Master of Science"],"dc:format.medium":["ETD"],"dc:identifier.other":["vt_gsexam:38211"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115994"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher":["Virginia Tech"],"dc:rights":["Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"],"dc:subject":["Extended Reality","Virtual Reality","Mid-air Text-Entry","Auditory Feedback","Feedback Replacement","Sensory Substitution"],"dc:title":["MusiKeys: Exploring Auditory-Physical Feedback Replacement for Mid-Air Text-Entry"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Science and Applications"],"thesis:degree_level":["masters"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"],"thesis:institution_name":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:19:21Z"}