On 10 September 2026, Patricia Pons Tomás from ITI, an IRIS-XR project partner, participated in the OPENVERSE Summit 2026, contributing to a roundtable on the future of European Virtual Worlds and the Web 4.0 roadmap.
The discussion focused on the research, innovation and policy priorities needed to develop human-centric, trustworthy and sustainable immersive ecosystems, drawing on key priorities identified by the OPENVERSE project.
Designing XR around people
Patricia’s contribution focused on the human side of immersive technologies. Next-generation XR systems increasingly use technologies such as eye tracking, gesture tracking and affective sensing, creating new possibilities for more responsive and personalised experiences. At the same time, their development requires careful consideration of trust, safety, wellbeing and accessibility across different users and contexts.
She also shared perspectives from work in sensitive application areas, particularly mental health, where ethical design, inclusivity, and user empowerment are especially important. Looking ahead to the next generation of human-centred XR, Patricia emphasised::
“The future of XR lies in empathic, adaptive systems built through active co-design. We must move beyond viewing users merely as consumers and actively involve them as co-creators of XR experiences. Through participatory design and by evaluating users’ real-time emotional and cognitive responses when using an immersive system, we lay the groundwork for intuitive technologies that adapt to the diverse physical and cognitive needs of everyone, from specialized workers to patients.”
Connecting the discussion with IRIS-XR
These topics are closely linked to the objectives of IRIS-XR, which is developing new hardware, sensing and AI technologies for next-generation extended reality. Our project explores solutions including display-embedded infrared eye tracking, event-based sensing and AI-driven multimodal fusion, while considering how XR technologies can better respond to users and their needs.
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