Extended Reality
Immersive systems grounded in perceptual science
Extended reality and virtual reality work in this programme focuses on immersive systems that are shaped by perception rather than only by hardware capability. The question is not simply whether an XR system can render an image, object, hand, or environment, but whether the result supports action, ownership, timing, social presence, and usable feedback.
The work includes virtual hand ownership, hand tracking, virtual grasping, locomotion techniques, XR text entry, mixed-reality collision awareness, augmented music rehearsal, telepresence, and public-facing immersive experiences. Several projects turn research into infrastructure: open datasets, catalogues, software, lab resources, and translational platforms for cultural, creative, and industrial applications.
Timing and multisensory consistency are especially important in XR. Delays between movement and visual or haptic feedback can change perceived stiffness, synchrony, ownership, and usability. The XR strand therefore combines psychophysics, measurement methods, haptics, modelling, and design to build immersive systems that feel responsive and perceptually grounded.
Key Questions
How can immersive systems support perception, action, ownership, and social interaction?
Which interaction techniques make XR hand tracking, locomotion, and text entry usable in practice?
How do delays, tracking errors, and mismatched feedback change the experience of virtual objects?
How can XR research produce reusable datasets, tools, and cultural or industrial applications?
Related Keywords
Portfolio and Resources
BhamXR
University of Birmingham interdisciplinary network for extended reality, virtual worlds, haptics, AI-generated environments, telepresence, avatars, and spatial computing.
Virtual Reality Lab website
Facilities, projects, people, and activities from the University of Birmingham Virtual Reality Lab.
XR Text Trove
Open catalogue and analysis of XR text entry techniques, connected to the CHI 2025 TEXT paper and Google-supported research.
Locomotion Vault
Public resource for analysing, comparing, and standardising VR locomotion techniques.
Augmented Reality Music Ensemble
Research platform and public resources for augmented and virtual music ensemble rehearsal, connected to MyJAMS and spin-out activity.
MyJAMS
Spin-out pathway for ARME outputs, translating research on distributed and immersive music rehearsal into public-facing tools.
AMUSER
Augmented MUSic Ensemble Rehearsal translation work, developing app and impact pathways from ARME research.
MUSEX
MUSic Ensemble eXhibition, translating ARME research into exhibition, impact, and public engagement outputs.
Virtuoso Strings dataset
Open string ensemble recordings, scores, and onset annotations for timing analysis, automatic music transcription, and ARME research.
PrendoSim software
Proxy-hand-based robot grasp generation software for studying, simulating, and demonstrating object handovers.
Prendo VR grasping experiment
VR grasping demonstrator used to explore hand interaction, object transfer, and perception-action coupling.
VR delay measurement code
Software supporting reproducible measurement of end-to-end latency in virtual reality systems, linked to work on timing accuracy in psychophysical and XR experiments.
Kenilworth Revealed
Augmented reality heritage experience bringing Kenilworth’s history to life. MyJAMS contributed filmed performance elements inserted into the reconstructed medieval environment; Zubr developed the app for Kenilworth Town Council.Featured Publications
(2026).
Belt and Whistles: Adding Lower Body Collision Awareness for MR Experiences.
CHI ‘26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery.
(2025).
TEXT: Text Entry for XR Trove—Collecting and Analyzing Techniques for Text Input in XR.
Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
(2023).
A methodological framework to assess the accuracy of virtual reality hand-tracking systems: A case study with the Meta Quest 2.
Behavior Research Methods.
Articles in extended reality 27
(2026).
Belt and Whistles: Adding Lower Body Collision Awareness for MR Experiences.
CHI ‘26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery.
(2025).
TEXT: Text Entry for XR Trove—Collecting and Analyzing Techniques for Text Input in XR.
Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
(2023).
A methodological framework to assess the accuracy of virtual reality hand-tracking systems: A case study with the Meta Quest 2.
Behavior Research Methods.
(2023).
How important are detailed hand motions for communication for a virtual character through the lens of charades?.
ACM Transactions on Graphics.
(2022).
Perceived intensities of normal and shear skin stimuli using a wearable haptic bracelet.
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).
(2022).
Robot, pass me the tool: handle visibility facilitates task-oriented handovers.
Proceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ‘22).
(2021).
Tactile Echoes: Multisensory Augmented Reality for the Hand.
IEEE Transactions on Haptics.
(2021).
Locomotion Vault: the Extra Mile in Analyzing VR Locomotion Techniques.
ACM CHI.
(2021).
PrendoSim: Proxy-Hand-Based Robot Grasp Generator.
ICINCO 2021.
(2019).
Virtual grasping feedback and virtual hand ownership.
Proceedings - SAP 2019: ACM Conference on Applied Perception.
(2019).
Tactile Echoes: A Wearable System for Tactile Augmentation of Objects.
2019 IEEE World Haptics Conference, WHC 2019.
(2019).
Perceptual Limits of Visual-Haptic Simultaneity in Virtual Reality Interactions.
2019 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).
(2019).
The Effect of Hand Size and Interaction Modality on the Virtual Hand Illusion.
2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR).
(2018).
Peri-personal space as a prior in coupling visual and proprioceptive signals.
Scientific Reports.
(2018).
Touch with foreign hands: The effect of virtual hand appearance on visual-haptic integration.
Proceedings - SAP 2018: ACM Symposium on Applied Perception.
(2015).
Progressive co-adaptation in human-machine interaction.
ICINCO 2015 - 12th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, Proceedings.
(2013).
Multisensory contributions to spatial perception.
Handbook of Spatial Cognition.
(2011).
Effects of visual-haptic asynchronies and loading-unloading movements on compliance perception.
Brain Research Bulletin.
(2011).
Perceived compliance in a pinch.
Vision Research.
(2011).
The rubber hand illusion: Feeling of ownership and proprioceptive drift Do not go hand in hand.
PLoS ONE.
(2010).
Combination and integration in the perception of visual-haptic compliance information.
IEEE Transactions on Haptics.
(2010).
New Method to Measure End-to-End Delay of Virtual Reality.
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.
(2009).
Computationally efficient techniques for data-driven haptic rendering.
Proceedings - 3rd Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, World Haptics 2009.
(2009).
Influence of visual and haptic delays on stiffness perception in augmented reality.
Science and Technology Proceedings - IEEE 2009 International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, ISMAR 2009.
Related Research Areas
Haptics
Touch, force feedback, and tactile interaction
Multisensory Perception
How the brain combines uncertain signals during perception and action
Temporal Perception
Synchrony, duration, recalibration, and timing in interactive systems
Computational Modelling
Formal models of perception, timing, movement, and interaction
Massimiliano Di Luca
Associate Professor in Psychology and Computer Science
Associate Professor in Psychology and Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, leading interdisciplinary research in multisensory perception, extended reality, haptics, and computational cognitive science.