Workshop News

We are pleased to be involved in the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2026, taking place in Bari, Italy, from October 5–9, 2026. As part of the workshop program, we are contributing to discussions around emerging topics in extended reality, human-centered computing, and multimodal interaction. The ISMAR workshops bring together researchers and practitioners to explore new research directions, share work in progress, and foster interdisciplinary collaborations across the XR community. We look forward to engaging with the international XR community in Bari and contributing to the ongoing exchange of ideas at ISMAR 2026.

MedicalXR 2026: 3rd International Workshop on Medical Extended Reality Workshop Page

Paper News

We present our collaborative TVCG paper Grand Challenges in Cross Reality. Abstract: Cross Reality (CR) is a new emerging field based on the current developments in Mixed Reality hardware, especially supported by the broad market penetration of video-based see- through Head-Mounted Displays. It refers to applications that span across different stages (real, Augmented Reality, Augmented Virtuality, Virtual Reality) of the reality-virtuality continuum, where users are interconnected between different stages and/or are able to transition between these stages. This publication follows the concept of other grand challenges publications and reflects the discussion of various researchers invested in CR. After an initial discussion at the 1st Joint Workshop on Cross Reality at IEEE ISMAR 2023, six topic groups have been identified, leading to 22 challenges, which were discussed in groups over the period of multiple months. The discussion of these challenges should act as a road map for future research in the area of CR. Paper: IEEE Authors: Christoph Anthes, Mark Billinghurst, Uwe Grünefeld, Hans-Christian Jetter, Hai-Ning Liang, Frank Maurer, David Aigner, Craig Anslow, Guillaume Bataille, Abraham G Campbell, Judith Friedl-Knirsch, Alexander Gall, Renan Guarese, Sebastian Hubenschmid, Yue Li, Fabian Pointecker, Andreas Riegler, Daniel Roth, Rishi Vanukuru, Nanjia Wang, Lingyun Yu, Johannes Zagermann, Daniel Zielasko

Poster News

Exploring AR and Spatial Audio for Object Localization Following a fruitful discussion at IEEE VR 2025, we teamed up with researchers from the University of Haifa (Rafael Damouni, Muhammad Haj Ali, Sarit Szpiro, and Ilan Shimshoni) to explore how augmented reality (AR) and spatial audio can support object localization for people with visual impairments, particularly those experiencing tunnel vision.

In a user study, participants searched for objects in an everyday environment using a video-see-through AR headset under simulated tunnel vision. We compared visual, auditory, and combined cues, with the system providing distance-adaptive, spatially localized guidance.

The findings highlight the potential of combining visual and spatial audio cues to support object search and everyday tasks, offering promising directions for accessible and assistive AR technologies. The work is currently in progress and was recently summarized in a poster accepted for the ISMAR 2026 Poster Session.

Authors: Rafael Damouni, Muhammad Haj Ali, Dr. Julian Kreimeier, Hannah Schieber, Prof. Dr. Daniel Roth, Sarit Szpiro, and Ilan Shimshoni.

🏆We received an Honorable Mention Best Short Poster Award 🏆