Slovak invented keyboard for virtual reality

PunchKeyboard is a virtual keyboard on which users can write thanks to virtual reality drivers without leaving the simulated environment.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: AP/TASR)

Virtual reality still lacks a reliable method for typing text directly in the virtual environment. The recent invention of Slovak designer Jonathan Ravasz, who currently works at the technological incubator Kitchen in Budapest, may however change this.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

PunchKeyboard is a virtual keyboard on which users can write thanks to virtual reality drivers without leaving the simulated environment. It should serve as a temporary tool that implements methods from 2D into 3D, the Sme daily reported.

“The passwords and emails are currently always entered outside the virtual reality which disrupts the experience offered by this technology,” Ravasz told Sme. “There is also a possibility to enter the text by voice, but people lose their intimacy. Moreover, in some cases people don’t want to enter their personal data aloud.”

SkryťTurn off ads

The PunchKeyboard tool resembles the typewriter that can automatically complete words and predict following words in the sentence. The database uses its vocabulary from the social network Reddit. The users, however, can create their own vocabulary.

The PunchKeyboard code can be found at the GitHub website as open source, and people can adapt it to specific purposes.

“I wanted it to become standard solution,” Ravasz said, as quoted by Sme. “I’m currently working on a prototype which could work in the virtual reality also with chatbots.”

The Slovak developer is also working on connecting the keyboard with artificial intelligence Watson by IBM, in order to enable the change of text to speech, Sme reported.

Top stories

Vrakuňa’s citizens presented apples washed in water with leaked toxins at the protest in 2016.

Chemical time bomb in Bratislava’s Vrakuňa keeps ticking

The state is failing to solve leaking chemical waste dump.


31. may
Jupiter (centre) and its Galilean moons: from left Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto. Juice with deployed antennas and arrays is in the bottom right.

From Košice to Ganymede: Slovak engineers are leaving their mark in space

Slovaks are active participants in two ongoing space missions.


20. may
Four major carmakers produce in Slovakia.

Slovakia opposes new Euro 7 emissions norm along with seven EU countries

Euro 7 and ban on sale of new fossil fuels cars as of 2035 have become pre-election themes in Slovakia.


2. jun
SkryťClose ad