Logitech & HTC Work Together To Bring Keyboards Into Virtual Reality

If you’ve ever tried virtual reality (VR) before, then you know that keyboard input in VR is a less than ideal experience. However the good news is that it looks like the folks at HTC and Logitech want to solve the keyboard issue within VR, and have announced that they will be working together to improve on the keyboard typing VR experience.

According to HTC, “During our initial explorations of VR, we were struck by the fact that keyboard use and text entry were necessary but not natural — and we’ve heard similar complaints from others. Our motivation comes from the research-backed understanding that in certain situations the user still needs a keyboard to interact with applications, particularly in productivity-driven or desktop scenarios, but also in games, social applications and content browsing.”

To that extent, HTC and Logitech have put together a kit that consists of a Logitech G gaming keyboard, a tracker that will track the location of your hands/fingers on the keyboard in real-life and transmit that data into VR, and accompanying software. HTC is also inviting developers to submit their application to take part in this initiative.

At the moment it appears to be a rather small program with only 50 of these kits being made available at the start. However HTC notes that if there is sufficient interest, they will be building more kits after the initial batch is interested. Developers who want to take part can sign up here.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: HTC, HTC Vive, Logitech, Virtual Reality (VR)