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Mar 01, 2024

Boz types at 119 wpm in Quest with Reality Labs virtual keyboard

In a recent AMA, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth shared details about an amazing virtual typing demonstration where he hit 119 words per minute. Meta Reality Labs develops advanced VR and AR technology,

In a recent AMA, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth shared details about an amazing virtual typing demonstration where he hit 119 words per minute.

Meta Reality Labs develops advanced VR and AR technology, hardware prototypes, and alpha software that might never launch. Still, it serves as an example of what's possible and could be coming soon from Meta.

The latest demonstration, posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Instagram, shows a typing competition that relies on computer vision and mixed reality to eliminate the physical keyboard and make the experience entirely virtual.

With a large QR code stuck on a table, we see hands resting on the surface and fingers tapping as if on real keys. A shot of a screen shows text appearing rapidly. Zuck's post mentioned that he reached 100 wpm, while Boz won with nearly 120 wpm.

Boz later clarified in his AMA story that it was 119 wpm with 98.9% accuracy. His first attempt was significantly lower, about 70 wpm. After "trying to let it go" and get over a mental block, Boz achieved the remarkable 119 wpm.

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Breaking even 70 words per minute on a virtual keyboard is incredible. Meta recently gave Quest users a swipe keyboard, and it works well when using controllers. With hands alone, accuracy suffers when moving too quickly.

No details were provided about when or if this mixed reality keyboard demo would graduate into a usable consumer product. It's worth noting Reality Labs used a Quest 2 headset, but a tether was visible, suggesting a computer was needed.

Before launching a mixed reality keyboard of this type on the Quest platform, Meta would likely want to adapt this technology to run natively. It's unclear if the Quest 2's XR2 chip could handle that pace. Perhaps the Quest Pro's XR2+ or the upcoming Quest 3 will be up to the challenge.

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