The HEAT project is pleased to announce a strong consortium presence at the ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences, IMX 2026, which will take place in Athlone, Ireland, from 9–11 June 2026. IMX is a leading international venue for research and discussion on interactive media experiences, bringing together researchers and practitioners from areas including human-computer interaction, multimedia engineering, design, media studies, media psychology, and sociology. HEAT’s participation provides an important opportunity to share the project’s latest progress with an international community working on the immersive media domain.
This year, HEAT will contribute to IMX through a substantial portfolio of research outputs spanning key areas of hybrid and immersive media. A total of 15 papers, developed through the collaborative efforts of HEAT partners, will be presented at the main IMX conference and the co-located ISIM workshop. These include multisensory experience design, multimodal interaction devices, volumetric capture technologies, quality of experience assessment, and market-oriented research and evaluation frameworks for hybrid XR adoption.
Together, this body of work demonstrates the growing maturity of the project and highlights the consortium’s active role in shaping the future of immersive media experiences. HEAT looks forward to engaging with the IMX community, exchanging ideas with researchers and practitioners, and further strengthening collaboration around emerging XR technologies.
For more information:
IMX 2026: https://imx.acm.org/2026/; ISIM Workshop 2026: https://heat-xr.eu/isim-workshop-2026/
Accepted Papers
- Anna Ferrarotti, Manuela Viscontini, Alessia Lorenzi, Ivan Legnaioli, Vincenzo Mauro, Valentina Cancilla, Andrea di Meo, Federico Capriuoli, Matias Guerra, Marcos Valdes, Marco Carli. (2026) Beyond Digital Replication: Designing an Interactive and Multisensory VR Museum Experience. IMX ’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Matteo Pestelli, Erica Rocchi, Marco Carli “The Impact of Haptics on User Presence in Virtual Reality”. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Erica Rocchi, Anna Ferrarotti, Manuela Viscontini, Marco Carli. Beyond Audio-Visual VR: The Role of Olfactory Synchronization in Multisensory Experiences. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Jiantao Wu, Arabela Baican, Vlad Popescu, Luke O’Shaughnessy, Sarah Halpin, Anderson Augusto Simiscu, Gabriel-Miro Muntean, Alessia Palladino, Gianluca Fadda, Maurizio Murroni, Ioana Ghergulescu. (2026) Evaluating the Adoption of Hybrid Extended Reality Technologies (HEAT): Bridging Value Propositions, Market Research and User Acceptance Using the Technology Acceptance Model and SWOT Model. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Jiantao Wu, Arabela Briciu, Vlad Popescu, Erica Rocchi, Marco Carli, Alessia Palladino, Massimo Farina, Gianluca Fadda, Maurizio Murroni, Anderson Augusto Simiscuka, Sara Baldoni, Federica Battisti, Gabriel-Miro Muntean, Sarah Halpin, Ioana Ghergulescu. (2026) HMXR-Eval: a Hybrid Multisensory XR Evaluation Framework. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Barbara Schiavi, Charles Bailly, Elliot Bouchet, Nicolas Mizzon, Lucas Pometti, Julien Castet. (2026) XRSeat: Designing and Evaluating a Modular Multimodal Chair to Increase the Quality of Experience for XR. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Sara Baldoni and Federica Battisti. (2026) When milliseconds matter: the impact of network latency on VR gaming experience. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Peter A. Kara and Tibor Balogh. (2026) Valid-Viewing-Area-Focused Feasibility Study on Split-Domain Light Field Visualization. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Tibor Balogh and Peter A. Kara. (2026) Smoothness or Sharpness: On the Rendering of 3D Gaussian Splatting of Sparse Point Clouds on Light Field Displays. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Gianluca Fadda. Alessia Palladino, Massimo Farina, Maurizio Murroni, Daniel Calaver, Nicusor Amarie, Vlad Popescu, Anderson Augusto Simiscuka. (2026) An Integrated Design Methodology for Multisensory XR Theater: Bridging Technical, Artistic, and Ethical Dimensions. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- E. Nerelli, Á. Egea, F. Buttusi, M. Montagud, J. Segura. (2026) Recovering Lost Theatrical Heritage through Interactive VR: Casa de Comedias de l’Olivera. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- M. Fernández-Dasí, A. Calvo, E. Fontes, S. Fernández, J. Paradells, M. Montagud. (2026) Towards Interactive Volumetric Video experiences on Lightweight VR Devices through Remote Rendering. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- E. Nerelli, Á. Egea, F. Buttusi, M. Montagud, J. Segura. (2026) Shared Visits to Lost Theaters: Holoportation and Multimodal Content in Virtual Reality. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- E. Nerelli, F. Buttusi, M. Montagud. (2026) Interactive Experiences in Extended Reality and Multimedia Environments. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
- Á. Egea, F. Buttusi, M. Montagud. (2026) Towards a Framework for Interactive Hybrid Social XR: Exploring Multimodal Interaction and Assistive Technologies in Asymmetric Multiuser Experiences. IMX’26: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
Acknowledgement
The HEAT consortium brings together partners including Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Dublin City University, Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, Universitatea Transilvania din Brașov, Holografika, Immersion, Fundació Privada i2CAT, Adaptemy Limited, Teatro di Sardegna, Irish Opera Transformations Company, Asociația Transilvania Arts & Events, Opera Europa, Orange Romania, VIS SRL, and Fachhochschule Zentralschweiz – Hochschule Luzern.
