What if you could type by blinking?

[wetrollerskate]

We now saw videos of people in public and pinching and pointing to type all that text while wearing these is starting to look a bit goofy. Then I thought. What if they added another parameter that could be activated, tracking something like blinking?

You would pinch and hold and that would activate a "Typing" mode. In that mode, every time you look at the keyboard and blink, it would input that. This would save you the trouble of constantly pinching and poking at things, making it a little less weird in public.

Thoughts?

 

[fs454]

It would be pretty easy to implement, there are games on PSVR2 that use your blink as a game mechanic (the enemies movie every time you blink, pretty cool) - I was surprised to not find any blink stuff in the accessibility settings of visionOS.

 

[NT1440]

We now saw videos of people in public and pinching and pointing to type all that text while wearing these is starting to look a bit goofy. Then I thought. What if they added another parameter that could be activated, tracking something like blinking?

You would pinch and hold and that would activate a "Typing" mode. In that mode, every time you look at the keyboard and blink, it would input that. This would save you the trouble of constantly pinching and poking at things, making it a little less weird in public.

Thoughts?

Sounds like a nightmare. Humans blink a lot more than you consciously think.

 

[turbineseaplane]

What if we just had a brain implant that scanned our thoughts?

Apple Implant Pro*

*iCloud Platinum Pro Annual Plan required

 

[NT1440]

What if we just had a brain implant that scanned our thoughts?

Apple Implant Pro*

*iCloud Platinum Pro Annual Plan required

I’ll leave it to Musk to kill people with brain implants…

 

[Piggie]

How about eyebrow control as demonstrated below

 

[wetrollerskate]

Sounds like a nightmare. Humans blink a lot more than you consciously think.

Not if a mode that tracks blinking can be toggled on and off, only being activated when you want it to.

 

[NT1440]

Not if a mode that tracks blinking can be toggled on and off, only being activated when you want it to.

For a primary UX that’s far and away too complicated to keep track of all the time. Try to think through how you would toggle it, does a blink count as an action for turning it off once it’s on, etc.

Now try explaining how to use that to your average non-tech user.

Coming from an IT support and administration background who has to make documentation for regular people….no thank you.

 

[AVP_NEWB]

On first reading this suggestion I thought: “That would be awesome!”

Then I read some of the excellent points made in replies here, I agree, it has potential for a lot of unintentional activation. The point about user confusion & support is also interesting.

Then I thought about what would happen if this feature was on, and users were holding their eyes open to avoid blinking so that they wouldn’t make unintended selections, and then their eyes dry out and feel terrible.

Blinking to make selections sounds amazing, but difficult to implement without causing confusion.

I had a thought just this very second: What about winking instead? I don’t think most people do a lot of involuntary winking (opening and closing just one eye), maybe that would solve for the unintentional activation problem?

 

[klasma]

Wink left for upper case, right for lower case.

They could also add a mode where you can wink in morse code, then it doesn't matter where you look.

You'll get sore eyelid muscles though.

 

[BanditoB]

Just make users blink twice rapidly to make a selection. There, problem solved.