A year or two ago, Infinite Office was announced during Oculus Connect. This is a collection
of features built into Oculus Quest designed to make working in VR feel more productive
and flexible. [Teaser]
Oculus releases these features one by one. So before, we already got the ability to use
our Bluetooth mouse or keyboard in the Oculus Quest. This time, we are getting two more
features: You can now Bring Your Desk into VR and track a keyboard inside VR. Emphasis
on tracking as that’s the cool thing, but I’ll show you what that’s like in a bit.
I think these are important steps towards the future of working in VR. However, are
we there yet, and should you get the only keyboard compatible, the Logitech K830, right
now right here?
Hey everyone! Cas here, and today, we’re going to answer these questions and dive into
these features. I’ll show you how to use it, what you can do with it, and share some
fun tests results. But I also thought it’d be interesting to compare it with the only
other app that supports keyboard overlays (as far as I know at least) — This is Immersed
VR. Previously, I’ve covered it (link is below). This is a desktop streaming app. However,
there are big differences here. So here’s a comparison.
Immersed gets you a template keyboard overlay that doesn’t necessarily match your keyboard.
However, you -can- make it work on all keyboards. The Oculus keyboard overlay is a one-on-one
match, making it easier for typing, but it only works with the one keyboard.
The keyboard overlay in Immersed is not tracked, so when you move the keyboard, you need to
recalibrate it again. Oculus’s keyboard is actually tracked in-VR.
Immersed is an app that focuses on streaming your desktop and adding multiple screens for
work. There’s one use case. Oculus’s keyboard solution works in the entire Oculus Quest
operating system, so as more features come out, more use cases will be added over time.
Immersed is also not free if you want multiple screens. All Infinite Office updates are free,
for now at least.
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So let’s talk about how to setup the new features. For this, you have to be on update
v28 or higher. Currently, these features are experimental, so you go to Settings > Experimental
Features inside your Quest headset.
Let me show you Bring Your Desk In VR first. To turn that on, you turn on this toggle.
Then it’ll bring you to a calibration screen where you have to draw your desk with your
motion controller. This is easy to do; just pick a corner, then hold the trigger button
and drag it to the other corner.
As a last calibration step, you have to put the controller on the desk and press the trigger
button. A virtual overlay will appear completely calibrated with your real-life desk. If it
looks good, you can click confirm.
I really enjoy this feature as it makes it easy to know where my things are. The overlay
will be saved, too, so it should show up each time you’re in the same room. That’s like
with your guardian, but yes, it doesn’t always work since the Quest does need something
recognizable to remember what room you’re in. If you stand somewhere else the next time
you put on your headset, it might not recognize it.
Now, to turn on the keyboard tracking. You have to pair it with the Logitech K830 keyboard.
This is the only keyboard supported for now, and it costs 80 US dollars. I’ll talk a
bit about what I think about this keyboard later in the video.
Let’s connect the K830 via Bluetooth first. To turn on Bluetooth on the keyboard, you
press the FN button and then the DELETE button.
The LED light will start blinking, indicating that it’s looking for something to pair
with. Now in your headset, just head over to the Bluetooth section in the Experimental
Features. Click Pair, then Pair New Device, and you should see your K830 there. It’ll
ask you to type a set of numbers first as confirmation, do that on the keyboard and
then press enter. If you’ve entered the numbers correctly, a 3D model will show up
right where you paired it. As you can see, I have it right here in front of me. You can
see my hands when I’m close to it too. This is a 3D representation of my hands which
only appears when you move your hands close to your keyboard. It kind of looks like I
have ghosts hands as they are transparent, kinda like what you see in passthrough mode.
I get that they did this because using the cameras looks like it tracks in real-time
without noticeable latency. In comparison, regular hand tracking uses software algorithms
to determine where your hand is, so it does have some delay.
But funny enough, the ghost hands only work when you turn on hand tracking, which you
can do under Settings > Device.
However, the coolest part of this is that the keyboard is tracked. So I can move it
a bit, and the virtual keyboard will move with me.
There is a limit, though, like I cannot pick it up; it will disappear. But I can move it
on my lap or somewhere else, and while it disappears, it reappears again and stays tracked.
For an optimal experience, Oculus recommends placing the keyboard on a flat and light-colored
surface in a well-lit area.
So yea, it’s really nice as you can work at your desk, and then if you decide you want
to switch things up, spice up the work life a little bit and then work on the couch instead,
you can do that without having to recalibrate.
The tracking is some excellent Oculus magic being used here. I’m not sure what the tech
is behind it; it’s probably a mix of utilizing the Quest cameras that recognizes the keyboard
shape and via Bluetooth, maybe the model data? I’m not sure, but it does work. And it makes
me wonder what other objects can we track in VR in the future. Like our phones, maybe?
That would be so handy.
So what you can do now is use the trackpad as a mouse inside the headset. You can click
buttons, use gestures to scroll, leave this video a like to support the channel, and so
forth.
And the typing works great too. There’s no noticeable latency. Check out this typing
test I did, for example.
As you can see, I’m typing with these words per minute, which isn’t that far off as
my typing without VR
So I like the look of this keyboard. It looks elegant, but it’s primarily plastic, so
not the most sturdy keyboard. It types fine, though, and it’s nice to have the trackpad,
so you don’t always need a separate mouse. I do feel like the trackpad is a bit finicky,
though. The mouse pointer tracks well, but finger gestures like scrolling with two fingers
don’t always work great. So there’s definitely some more work to do here.
I have tried other keyboards, too, like I have another Logitech keyboard right here.
Unfortunately, this does not work. I mean, you can connect the keyboard and type with
it, but it won’t be tracked or have an overlay with nice ghost hands. So, for now, other
keyboards aren’t as useful in the Oculus Quest. Oculus has said tho that they are going
to add support for more keyboards in the future.
But I know what you’re thinking. This is all great, Cas; it works, but what the heck
can you do with it. Unfortunately, that’s where the bad news comes in.
There’s not much you can do right now. It only works in the Quest system and only with
the official Oculus apps, like Oculus TV, the Oculus Store, and Browser.
In Oculus TV, you can use it with apps like YouTube or if you sideload apps like Google
Stadia, for example. In Oculus Browser, it is the most useful right now because you can
surf the web more easily; I love that you can use CTRL + C to copy and paste text, for
example. Plus, you can open multiple tabs separately, making it feel like you’re working
with multiple screens. But this is only surfing the web.
And I personally do not use these apps a lot. One of my main reasons is that I need my software
to be productive, like my password manager, which I cannot install on the Quest.
This would not be a problem if this works with a desktop streaming app, like Virtual
Desktop. As you can bring your desktop into VR then and I’ll have access to all the
software I need. Unfortunately, you can use the keyboard by connecting it to your PC,
but not while connecting to the Quest. And the keyboard is not tracked. It does also
not work in Oculus Link or Air Link, but I hope it will eventually as in there you can
also stream your desktop screen.
It would also be great to see these features extended to other games and apps. I mean,
wouldn’t it be great if you can log in to your favorite games with a keyboard or chat
with people when you need to.
For now, you can tell that seeing your hands and having a one on one keyboard overlay plus
keyboard tracking really does make working in VR more productive.
It’s just too bad we cannot use it with more software yet. But I’m hopeful that
Oculus is planning on bringing all these features to the Quest as part of Infinite Office.
Right now, it’s experimental, and that’s definitely true. This is the beta with limited
usefulness.
So, especially if you’re on a budget, I would not recommend getting the Logitech K830
keyboard right now as there’s just not enough you can do. I would wait until more content
supports it. But if you have expendable money and would like to try it out and be ready
for the future. Then it’s not a bad keyboard. You can use it without tracking in other apps
for now in the meantime.
For now, I am looking forward to seeing what else Oculus will add and how they are going
to improve this. I think it is already pretty awesome to see how many free updates they’re
giving to the Quest. And I cannot wait to see what’s else is in store.
How would you like to use the keyboard in VR? Or are you using it already? If so, for
what? I’m curious. Let me know in the comments.
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