XR | Virtual Reality Lab

Beyond avatars: Designing bodily interfaces in virtual environments

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Xiang Li, a PhD candidate in the Intelligent Interactive Systems Group at the University of Cambridge, joined BhamXR to discuss Beyond avatars: Designing bodily interfaces in virtual environments.

The session explored how the body can function as a medium for control, coordination and expression in immersive technologies. Topics included gestures, muscle activity, movement and spatial awareness as foundations for interaction across virtual, augmented and mixed reality.

About the speaker

Xiang Li is a fourth-year PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge and a Student Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. His research focuses on embodied interaction and body-centric interfaces for spatial computing, with work published across HCI and XR venues.

The BhamXR recording was published on YouTube on 5 December 2025.

Links: Eventbrite listing and BhamXR LinkedIn.

About BhamXR

BhamXR is the University of Birmingham’s interdisciplinary XR network. The VR Lab is part of and actively supports the network through talks, visits, workshops, student activities, technical support and collaborative research.

BhamXR visit to the Extreme Robotics Lab

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0100

The VR Lab joined a BhamXR visit to the Extreme Robotics Lab in the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham to connect researchers working across robotics, immersive technology and human-centred interaction.

The visit created space to explore how robotics and XR can inform one another, from sensing and control to teleoperation, embodied interfaces, simulation, movement analysis and future collaborative research.

BhamXR members visited the Extreme Robotics Lab to explore links between robotics and XR.

Watch the robotics demonstration video.

For the VR Lab, visits like this are an important part of BhamXR’s network activity: they help researchers discover shared technical challenges, identify opportunities for collaboration, and connect students and staff with facilities across the University.

Links: BhamXR and Extreme Robotics Lab.

Themes

Robotics and immersive environments
Sensing, tracking and control
Human-robot and human-XR interaction
Demonstrations, lab exchange and collaboration opportunities

About BhamXR

BhamXR is the University of Birmingham’s interdisciplinary XR network. The VR Lab is part of and actively supports the network through seminars, visits, workshops, student activities, technical support and collaborative research.

BhamXR First Meetup

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The first BhamXR Meetup brought the University of Birmingham’s XR community together for discussion, networking and research exchange.

The meetup helped introduce BhamXR as an interdisciplinary community for people working with virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and virtual worlds across the University. Public LinkedIn snippets from the event thank attendees and give special thanks to Dr Daniele Giunchi for his contribution.

The public preview confirms that this was a BhamXR meetup held at the University of Birmingham in May 2025, but it does not expose the exact event day, time or full programme. This archive entry uses May 2025 for placement while keeping the event description to the details visible publicly.

Links: BhamXR LinkedIn and BhamXR YouTube channel.