Researchers have developed PAV, a novel system for generating personalized head avatars from unstructured video footage. This technique addresses the growing demand for realistic digital representations of individuals in virtual environments, entertainment, and communication applications. The PAV methodology leverages advanced computer vision and machine learning algorithms to extract facial geometry, appearance, and expression data directly from casual video input, eliminating the need for specialized capture equipment or controlled studio conditions. The system constructs high-fidelity 3D head models that accurately preserve individual facial characteristics and can be animated in real-time. Key findings demonstrate that PAV produces avatars of comparable quality to traditional methods requiring expensive motion capture systems, while operating from readily available video sources. This innovation significantly reduces production barriers and costs associated with avatar creation. The work matters because it democratizes personalized avatar generation for broader applications including virtual conferencing, gaming, social media, and digital content creation, making sophisticated digital representation accessible to mainstream users and industries without specialized infrastructure or expertise.

Industrial extended and augmented reality (XR/AR) device shipments exceeded 40 percent year-over-year growth in 2025, signaling accelerating adoption across manufacturing. Seven key use cases demonstrate the technology's transformative potential. In assembly operations, virtual reality simulates product assembly while augmented reality overlays work instructions through smart glasses, with Airbus deploying Microsoft HoloLens 2 to guide workers through complex processes. Quality assurance benefits from platforms like Taqtile's Manifest, which provides step-by-step visual instructions, real-time fault reporting, and remote expert assistance directly in workers' field of view. Asset management and warehouse operations leverage spatial computing, enabling hands-free inventory access and efficient navigation. DHL Supply Chain's "vision picking" program exemplifies this application, where AR-equipped smart glasses replaced paper lists and handheld scanners, increasing picking speed and accuracy. These implementations collectively enhance efficiency, safety, and collaboration, positioning XR/AR as essential tools for modernizing manufacturing operations in 2026 and beyond.

Extended reality (XR) devices are transforming access to virtual worlds across Europe, with head-mounted displays (HMDs) and augmented reality (AR) glasses serving as primary platforms. While virtual worlds can be accessed via computers or smartphones, immersive experiences require specialized hardware. HMDs offer two distinct approaches: augmented reality headsets overlay digital content onto the real world through transparent displays, while virtual reality headsets provide fully immersive environments through opaque screens. The market has expanded significantly due to increased device variety and affordability. Virtual reality headsets come in two configurations: tethered models connected to computers providing superior graphics through enhanced processing power, and untethered standalone devices offering greater comfort but reduced computational capability. Virtual worlds are accessed either through downloadable installations or cloud-based platforms accessible via internet browsers. Users interact with virtual environments using handheld controllers equipped with touchpads or buttons, enabling object manipulation and environmental navigation. As XR technology becomes increasingly comfortable and ergonomic while decreasing in cost, these devices are reshaping how Europeans engage with digital content, supporting applications from entertainment to hybrid business meetings utilizing holographic displays for remote participant integration.

Recent advances in Extended Reality (XR) technology have driven significant innovation in multimodal natural interaction systems for wearable devices. This comprehensive review examines research published between 2022 and 2024 across six premier venues including ACM CHI, UIST, IMWUT, IEEE VR, ISMAR, and TVCG, analyzing how spatial computing enables natural human-computer interaction through eye tracking, hand gestures, and voice commands. The proliferation of commercial XR headsets such as Microsoft HoloLens 2, Meta Quest 3, and Apple's Vision Pro across industrial maintenance, remote collaboration, online education, and entertainment has accelerated technological development. The integration of artificial intelligence and large language models has introduced new paradigms for interaction design. The review classifies studies by application scenarios, operation types, and interaction modalities, providing a structured framework for understanding advanced natural interaction techniques. Findings illuminate critical challenges in developing efficient, intuitive interaction systems while identifying promising research directions. These insights are essential for researchers designing next-generation spatial computing interfaces that seamlessly integrate virtual and physical environments, ultimately advancing the XR ecosystem's practical applications and market viability.

High-Voltage Electrostatic Actuators (HVEAs) represent a promising advancement for haptic interfaces integrated into wearables and everyday environments, addressing limitations of conventional actuators like DC motors, solenoids, and vibration motors that are bulky, noisy, and power-hungry. HVEAs generate force by applying electric fields to localized charge concentrations using high voltages and ultra-low currents, enabling fast, silent, and energy-efficient operation within customizable and compliant form factors. This survey examines four major HVEA classes: electrostatic switchable adhesives, dielectric elastomer actuators, soft electrohydraulic actuators, and electrokinetic pumps, characterizing their bandwidths, force densities, and spatial scalability for rendering both cutaneous and kinesthetic feedback. The analysis identifies common design constraints and emerging strategies for improving ergonomics, fabrication, and self-sensing integration. As haptic technology moves increasingly closer to the body through wearable and on-skin applications, HVEAs are uniquely positioned to meet demanding requirements for compactness, lightweight design, silence, and responsiveness, though significant research remains necessary for practical system implementation.

SISGAIN offers comprehensive AR/VR app development services designed to deliver enterprise-grade immersive experiences across augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and extended reality technologies. With over 15 years of enterprise delivery experience and HIPAA and GDPR-ready architecture, the company provides end-to-end solutions spanning mobile AR applications, VR training simulations, enterprise XR platforms, and WebAR experiences, from 3D asset creation through device deployment. SISGAIN serves diverse industries including healthcare, retail, real estate, manufacturing, education, and logistics, addressing specific use cases such as VR training simulations, AR product visualization, virtual property tours, maintenance assistance, and warehouse navigation. The company differentiates itself by integrating AR/VR solutions with existing enterprise systems including ERP, CRM, LMS, and IoT infrastructure, delivering measurable business outcomes rather than isolated demonstrations. Operating across UAE, USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and GCC regions, SISGAIN combines deep enterprise software expertise with specialized AR/VR engineering to help organizations reduce training costs, elevate customer engagement, and innovate operational workflows at scale.

Augmented Reality (AR) comics represent an emerging digital storytelling medium that merges immersive technology with visual narratives to create interactive reading experiences. While AR applications have proliferated across education, cultural heritage, gaming, tourism, and digital media sectors, systematic research examining how aesthetic experience and immersive interaction drive user engagement in AR comic environments has remained limited. This gap motivated a comprehensive systematic review of 37 Scopus-indexed publications examining user experiences within AR-based applications. The analysis identified three critical themes shaping user engagement. Immersive Engagement emerged as the central mechanism, with interactivity, presence, participation, and flow experiences significantly enhancing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement by enabling active participation in digital content. Aesthetic Experience demonstrated that visual appeal, sensory stimulation, spatial visualization, and emotional resonance substantially influence user perceptions, enjoyment, and satisfaction with AR content. Interactive Storytelling revealed how narrative immersion, user agency, and participatory exploration transform passive consumption into active engagement, allowing users to co-create experiences. These findings underscore that combining narrative structures with AR technological capabilities creates meaningful, sustained user engagement, establishing AR comics as a powerful platform for interactive digital storytelling across multiple sectors.

Augmented reality in surgery represents a transformative approach to operative guidance, overlaying digital information from CT and MRI scans onto the surgeon's real-world view during planning and procedures. Unlike virtual reality, which creates entirely digital environments, augmented reality enhances the surgeon's actual field of view with computer-generated details such as tumor outlines, blood vessel locations, nerve positions, and planned incision lines. The technology supports multiple surgical specialties where anatomical complexity and precision are critical, including neurosurgery, spinal procedures, joint replacement, sinus surgery, and hepatic operations. The process begins preoperatively, with the surgical team creating digital anatomical maps and enabling virtual rehearsal before entering the operating room. During surgery, image registration aligns digital overlays with the patient's actual position, allowing surgeons to visualize instrument placement relative to hidden anatomical structures. This technology enhances surgical precision, teamwork, and educational value while maintaining the surgeon's judgment and standard safety protocols as paramount. Augmented reality functions as part of a broader image-guided surgical toolkit, representing an evolving standard in contemporary operative care.

Digital twin technology, which creates virtual representations of physical objects and systems by integrating real-time data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things sensors, and cloud computing, is poised for significant expansion in 2026. This summary examines the top ten applications of this transformative technology across multiple sectors. In smart manufacturing, digital twins enable factories to simulate production scenarios, predict equipment failures, and identify bottlenecks, resulting in reduced downtime, improved efficiency, better quality control, and lower operational costs through proactive optimization rather than reactive problem-solving. Healthcare represents an emerging frontier for digital twin innovation, where virtual patient models constructed from medical records, wearable devices, imaging systems, and laboratory data allow providers to simulate treatment plans, monitor chronic diseases, and personalize patient care strategies. This application promises personalized treatment approaches, improved patient outcomes, earlier disease detection, enhanced surgical planning, and better remote patient monitoring capabilities. As organizations increasingly recognize the strategic value of these virtual replicas, digital twin technology continues to reshape decision-making processes across industries by enabling predictive insights and comprehensive performance understanding before implementing real-world changes, positioning the technology as essential infrastructure for data-driven enterprises.

Enterprise virtual reality safety training concentrates in high-risk industries where work is inherently dangerous, traditional training proves costly, and workforce size justifies economic viability. This analysis identifies nine sectors driving enterprise VR safety investment in 2026, with verified customer implementations. Fatal workplace injury data reveals concentration in transportation, materials handling, construction, and fall-related accidents, directly correlating with VR adoption. Offshore oil and gas represents the most compelling use case, addressing critical challenges including high-consequence scenarios, geographically dispersed workforces, and expensive access. Recent deployments demonstrate significant success, with participation rates triple higher than conventional offshore training and zero technical complexity. Key vendors including Pixaera and Ludus are expanding implementations across major operators globally, targeting scenarios such as emergency response, confined-space entry, and hazard awareness through immersive training protocols.

FFAvatar presents a Transformer-based 3D Gaussian framework for rapid construction of high-quality, animatable 4D head avatars from one or multiple portrait images. The system uniquely supports incremental reconstruction, progressively refining avatar representations as additional reference images become available. A novel alternating attention mechanism disentangles identity appearance from expression and viewpoint variations, enabling consistent canonical 3D appearance reconstruction. The method employs a sparse-to-dense learning paradigm, initially learning coarse appearance features from sparse FLAME-anchored primitives before densifying in UV domain for fine-grained geometric and texture details. An optional motion refinement module enables subject-specific dynamic personalization through residual motion modeling. Experimental results demonstrate superior performance in identity-consistent rendering, driving efficiency, and visual fidelity across diverse expressions and viewpoints, positioning FFAvatar as a valuable solution for virtual reality and digital human applications.

AI virtual try-on technology addresses the significant challenge of online clothing returns in the United States, where nearly one in five items are returned due to fit concerns. This emerging solution enables customers to visualize garments on their own bodies using a single photograph before purchase, directly tackling the root cause of returns rather than managing symptoms. The technology works by analyzing customer photos and product images to render accurate virtual representations of how clothing will fit. The practice of "bracketing"—deliberately ordering multiple sizes with planned returns—has become normalized in the US market, creating inefficiencies for both retailers and consumers. Virtual try-on technology offers measurable improvements to conversion and return rates, making it increasingly essential for online retailers. The guide provides comprehensive information on implementation across various platforms, including Shopify and WooCommerce, establishing a practical roadmap for US retailers seeking to reduce returns and enhance customer satisfaction.

Immersive technology is transforming the way people interact with digital content by creating experiences that feel more engaging, interactive, and lifelike. ...

Augmented reality virtual try-on technology enables fashion customers to preview products such as eyewear, footwear, cosmetics, and apparel on their bodies or in their environments before purchase. Leveraging computer vision, 3D assets, and artificial intelligence, this digital shopping tool helps consumers understand scale, proportion, color, and styling compatibility, ultimately supporting product discovery and more confident online buying decisions. However, virtual try-on functions as a visual confidence enhancer rather than a guaranteed fit system, as accurate fit depends on body measurements, pattern engineering, and sizing precision. Fashion retailers achieve optimal results by integrating this technology with comprehensive product photography, detailed fit notes, and transparent return policies.

The augmented and virtual reality landscape is experiencing unprecedented transformation driven by artificial intelligence integration. Major technology companies including Meta, Apple, Snap, and Google are aggressively advancing smart glasses and AR/VR devices, with multiple product launches anticipated throughout 2026. This convergence represents the most dynamic period in wearables technology in over fifteen years. Industry experts are monitoring how AI capabilities integrate into everyday eyewear, while also addressing emerging privacy and ethical concerns. The competitive landscape encompasses innovative display technologies, advanced sensors, and novel user experiences that will define the next generation of wearable computing.

Wearable Devices Ltd. will showcase its advanced neural input ecosystem at the Augmented World Expo 2026 in Long Beach, featuring the Mudra Pro hardware and Mudra Studio software platform. The company's proprietary brain-computer interface technology decodes neural impulses before physical movement occurs, enabling ultra-low latency, private, and intuitive control for AI, augmented reality, and robotics applications. Unlike traditional camera-based motion tracking, this hardware-agnostic solution offers a natural alternative for controlling smart glasses and connected devices. Founder Guy Wagner will present on how neural input reduces interaction friction in AR and AI systems. The company will occupy dual exhibition spaces to demonstrate commercial readiness and facilitate original equipment manufacturer partnerships and enterprise engagements.

Pixee Medical has achieved a significant milestone with FDA 510(k) clearance for Knee+ NexSight, an innovative handheld augmented reality guidance system for total knee arthroplasty. Dr. Safa S. Kassab recently completed his tenth surgery using this technology, bringing his total experience with Pixee's AR-guided knee replacement solutions to over two thousand procedures. The intuitive interface combines high-precision surgical tools with compact AR technology, requiring minimal training and no additional equipment or disposables. Designed for seamless integration into existing surgical workflows, Knee+ NexSight enhances procedural reliability while maintaining cost-effectiveness and surgeon control. This advancement represents a transformative approach to orthopedic surgery, expanding access to cutting-edge technology globally and promising improved patient outcomes through personalized surgical guidance.

The influence of user technology on consumer decisions is apparent, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This research aims to analyze how virtual reality affects user experience, leading to changes in emotional attitudes and behavioral intentions. Within the scope of the Digital Dunhuang project in China, a comprehensive analysis was carried out using 466 reliable user data and structural equation modeling approaches. The findings of the investigation revealed that the influence of virtual reality on user experience manifests in the quality aspects of products, including pragmatic, aesthetic, and hedonic. Furthermore, these product qualities are capable of enhancing the development of perceived usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment. Simultaneously, perceived usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment can boost user satisfaction and intention to repurchase. Moreover, the study also revealed that user satisfaction effectively drives repurchase intention.

Immersive technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence are also entering the cosmetic industry and changing the retail shopping experience. Skincare and Cosmetic brands are increasingly adopting AR-based virtual try-on applications, AI-powered beauty filters, and interactive 3D visualization tools to improve customer engagement and influence consumer decision-making. This study attempts to explore the influence of the use of immersive technology especially AR on the purchase intention of the consumers in the cosmetic industry through qualitative analysis of the focus groups discussion held in Delhi. The study investigates consumer awareness, experience, motivation, emotional responses, and behavioral intentions in AR-based cosmetic shopping.

This year’s theme, “Unlock Your Mind,” spotlights organizations using neurotechnology to enable more independent, empowered lives. Cognixion was selected alongside a group of other innovators advancing ethical, human-centered solutions at the intersection of brain science and real-world impact.Cognixion’s work focuses on restoring communication and autonomy for people with speech and mobility impairments through wearable brain-computer interface technology—enabling thought-driven interaction, self-expression, and connection.