VIDEO: LOGITECH WANT TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN VIRTUAL AND REAL-WORLD TYPING

In general, a virtual reality world is a good place to start, but those users need and want to interact with their surroundings too. For some VR companies that is still a problem to overcome, now, HTC and Logitech are joining forces to put one of the most mundane – but essential – actions into VR. They want users to type in VR while interacting with an actual keyboard.

The Bridge developer kit is a bundle of hardware and software designed to help app makers work out how best to represent keyboards in VR space. This will enable VR explorers to see their physical keyboard in a virtual reality world and enable them to type on it without lifting off their headsets to get their bearings.

The kit includes a Logitech G gaming keyboard, a Vive Tracker for monitoring finger placement and typing on the keyboard, an attachment for connecting the two, plus software for getting everything correctly ported into a VR world.

The Vive Tracker was announced at the start of this year and can be fixed to just about anything, to get real-world objects to show up in a virtual reality environment.

"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," writes Vincent Tucker, Director Of Innovations & Strategy at Logitech. "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."

Logitech suggests having a proper keyboard to type on will enhance all kinds of VR experiences. It is certainly going to speed up the process of entering your Netflix password compared with pointing at one letter at a time with a motion controller.

Logitech has already put together the basic building blocks of the code so that the keyboard and your hands will show up in any Steam VR-compatible app. Logitech is making 50 of the bundles available to developers, to begin with. You can see a demo of the VR technology in action in the video below.