Virtual reality peripheral maker Drawboard emerged from stealth mode Friday to reveal its first product: a VR pen that can turn any surface – a wall or a table – into a virtual whiteboard.

As a technology, VR brings virtual spaces to life by allowing people to immerse themselves in computer graphics. The user experience in VR is profoundly different than a monitor and keyboard because once a users don a VR headset, they can’t see their hands or body.

This raises interesting user experience problems. Headset makers such as HTC Corp., developer of the Vive, and Oculus VR, developer of the Rift, have approached the problem by producing handheld peripherals that can be tracked in virtual reality to create virtual “hands” with finger-operated controllers. However, these controllers create a user experience in VR where people are expected to gesture and press buttons to open menus, operate and interact.

“VR controllers are great for gaming but their designers have largely ignored how most people like working outside of VR,” the Drawboard team wrote on their website. “They have to be held in midair and unlike a pen, paintbrush or other creative tool, they can’t be used on a flat surface. And they’re heavy, which makes them uncomfortable to use for even a relatively short period of time.”

The Drawboard Pen peripheral acts to mimic a pen or paintbrush, becoming a writing utensil that can be tracked in virtual reality. To do this, the pen peripheral provides six-degrees-of-freedom with submillimeter tracking and extremely low latency. This means that every movement of the pen is reflected almost instantly in the virtual space. Similar to a real-world pen, it can also detect a gradient of pressure of the tip against a surface: 512 levels of pressure sensitivity.

The pen is also tilt-sensitive and can provide tactile feedback, such as a “bump” sensation when a user interface event is triggered – for example, when a user crosses another drawn line with the pen.

The Drawboard Pen also comes with its own accompanying virtual workspace software, Drawboard Workspace. “The ultimate workspace isn’t a pad of paper, a whiteboard, or a wall of monitors, it’s an endless canvas for your ideas,” said the Drawboard team. “The Drawboard Workspace is a VR application that combines the best parts of 2-D and 3-D workspaces to create the first multidimensional workspace.”

With Drawboard Workspace, an empty table becomes more than just a surface that can be written on: it’s an infinite canvas that can be scrolled, lifted, moved, flipped, cleared, saved and updated at will.

With this unlimited workspace, it’s possible to import images, models and documents to be worked on as comfortably as sitting at a drafting table with a pen in hand. Using the Drawboard pen, it is possible to manipulate models, add annotations and notes. Drawboard Workspace sessions can be shared via the web and exported into a large number of formats.

The Drawboard Pen and Workspace join a collection of tools being developed in the virtual reality market to help better emulate workplaces. While gaming and entertainment make up a large portion of the VR market, many users will want to create (using apps such as Google LLC’s Tilt Brush) or just sit down at their own workstation.

Logitech International S.A. recently announced an experimental keyboard peripheral that can be tracked in VR called Bridge. And virtual office space and desktop apps such as Virtual Desktop and Space VR. The ultimate VR workstation may eventually be a mostly empty desk with only a keyboard, mouse and pen that can be put to use or moved depending on the worker’s mood.

Drawboard is expected to work with Windows Mixed Reality, Vive and Rift headsets.

The Drawboard Pen and Drawboard Workspace app is expected to start shipping in a limited production run in early 2018.

Image: Drawboard