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Beyond avatars: Designing bodily interfaces in extended reality
Speaker (s):
Xiang LI
PhD Candidate
Department of Engineering
University of Cambridge
| Date: Time: Venue: | | 15 January 2026, Thursday 2:30pm – 3:45pm School of Computing &
Information Systems 1 (SCIS 1)
Level 5, Meeting Room 5.1
Singapore Management University
80 Stamford Road
Singapore 178902
We look forward to seeing you at this research seminar. 
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About the Talk How can our bodies serve not only as subjects of experience in virtual environments but also as instruments of control, coordination, and expression to augment human capability? My research investigates this question by designing and studying body-centric interfaces and context-aware systems for immersive technologies such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (XR). Situated at the intersection of Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and XR, my work examines how embodied and adaptive interaction paradigms can inform the next generation of user experience in spatial computing. I design interfaces that treat the body as an intelligent medium where gestures, muscle signals, bodily movement, and spatial awareness enable more effective and engaging ways to work and interact in XR. Ultimately, I envision XR systems that feel intuitive and expressive, extending reality through the intelligence of the human body and truly moving beyond avatars.
About the Speaker Xiang Li is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Intelligent Interactive Systems Group at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, and a Student Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. He is now working at Sony CSL Kyoto as a Research Scientist Intern. Xiang was selected as the University of Cambridge delegate to the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar (SIYSS) during Nobel Week 2025, organised by the Swedish Federation of Young Scientists with support from the Nobel Foundation. He has previously worked with Monash University, Carnegie Mellon University, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, and Xi’an Jiaotong–Liverpool University.
Xiang’s research focuses on designing body-centric interfaces for spatial computing that augment human capabilities through embodied interaction, advancing the vision of augmented humans beyond avatars in virtual environments. His research has been published in leading venues including ACM CHI, ISS, SUI, CHI PLAY, TOCHI, IEEE TVCG, VR, and ISMAR, and has received multiple recognitions, such as the 2025 UKRI Innovate UK Immersive Tech Award for Technical Innovation, 2025 IEEE ISMAR Best Paper Honourable Mention, 2023 ACM CHI PLAY Best Interactivity Award, and 2020 IEEE VR Best Paper Nomination.
He is a tenure-track faculty candidate for the Human-Machine Collaborative Systems, Human-Computer Interaction Cluster. |
