Introducing a Bare-Hand VR Whiteboard for Natural Handwriting

Bare-Hand Whiteboard Writing

From the early exploration of virtual reality devices to the rapid development of VR technology and the emergence of the metaverse, each breakthrough has highlighted the growing confidence in VR's potential.

Interaction Paradigm Shift

VR's fast progress is not only reflected in hardware upgrades but also in continuous transformation of user interaction methods. As VR research advances, the way users interact with virtual worlds evolves, expanding the connection between humans and digital environments.

Initial Exploration of Handheld Interaction

Early VR devices relied heavily on handheld controllers or wrist‑mounted objects, which could simulate object movement but still fell short of natural user actions.

Future Outlook for Gesture Control

Entering the metaverse era, human‑machine interaction is poised for disruptive innovation. Our lab is developing gesture‑control technology that lets users manipulate virtual objects with body movements, aiming for immersive experiences and, eventually, brain‑computer interfaces that enable true mind‑controlled interaction.

Metaverse Education

Multiplayer collaboration in VR shows great promise for education and meetings. Traditional interaction methods struggle in multi‑user scenarios, especially for whiteboard collaboration. To address this, we designed an innovative whiteboard interaction that incorporates bare‑hand writing, multi‑user synchronization, and virtual brushes, breaking physical space limits and improving learning efficiency.

Bare-Hand Whiteboard Writing

In VR, bare‑hand interaction offers an intuitive, natural way to control and manipulate objects, providing higher immersion and freedom compared with controllers. It eliminates the need for extra tools, allowing direct gesture‑based interaction that aligns with natural human motion.

Smooth Handwriting Experience

To achieve fluid writing, the system filters erroneous touch points—ignoring inputs when the finger or stylus does not contact the board—to ensure clean strokes. It also applies a smoothing interpolation algorithm that calculates smooth transitions between points, reducing jitter and producing natural‑looking curves.

Multi-Board Synchronized Writing

The whiteboard system supports multiple users writing on separate boards while synchronizing all changes in real time. Whether collaborators are co‑located or remote, every line, text, or shape appears instantly on all participants' views, enhancing teamwork efficiency.

How to Use

Before using the whiteboard module, import the following Unity SDK packages:

Occlus.XR.Plugin v1.9.1

XR Interaction Toolkit v2.0.2

XR Legacy Input Helpers v2.1.10

XR Plugin Management v4.2.1

Tilia

Dissonance

NuGet

Mirror

Download the whiteboard module, import it into Unity, and locate the sample prefab at Asset/Prefabs/WriteBoard. Place the prefab into any scene that requires a whiteboard to enable the functionality.

Component Description

The sample includes:

WhiteBoard : the target board for writing.

MyWriteBoard/PenBlue : the virtual pen.

WritePoint : a writing indicator that triggers visual effects when writing starts.

Feature Description

Grabbing is implemented via VRTK by adjusting GrabOffset in Object/Internal, allowing developers to fine‑tune hand‑object interaction positions for accurate and comfortable grasping. The writing indicator uses particle effects defined in WritingPoint to visualize the user's stroke trajectory and provide dynamic feedback.

These features together improve precision grasp control and deliver smooth visual feedback during writing, benefiting complex multi‑user collaboration scenarios.

Related Achievements

Our research on bare‑hand whiteboard collaboration was published at the ACM SIGCHI CSCW conference (CCF A) in Bergen, Norway, October 2025. The paper, titled "Towards Bare-Hand Interaction for Whiteboard Collaboration in Virtual Reality," received positive feedback in user studies and demonstrated the technology's potential for education, remote meetings, and broader metaverse applications.

Team Introduction

The team, from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications' Network Intelligent Research Center (NIRC), includes Liu Guangtian, Su Haonan, Zhou Lei, Chen Xiang, Jian Xufeng, Zhou Xiayang, Ren Pengfei, and advisor Prof. Wang Jingyu. NIRC has published over 300 papers in top venues such as SIGCOMM, NSDI, ASPLOS, INFOCOM, TON, and JSAC, and has received multiple national and provincial technology awards.