Our work is at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), eXtended Reality (XR) and Human-Centered Design (HCD). We strive to understand how pervasive and emerging technologies can help bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds, especially in health & healthcare and education, and above all in life- and time-critical settings where the cost of a breakdown is immediate.

HXI’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), the UC San Diego Office of Research Affairs, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Moxie Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the European Commission (FP6), the California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP), the Naval Medical Center San Diego, the T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion, Intuitive Surgical, IBM Research, Lytx, Adobe Research and Boeing.

Simulated Patients for Clinical Communication Training

ConversHIVeConversHIVe-LiveEmpathIQ

An AI training platform for clinical communication: LLM-driven simulated patients stage difficult conversations, and social signal processing turns each rehearsal into interpretable feedback.

UNDERSTAND: Uplifting the New generation through DBT Education and Resilience for Social Triggers, Anxiety, Negativity, and Depression

A mobile health system pairing wearable sensing and machine learning with just-in-time adaptive interventions, targeting emotional dysregulation and other transdiagnostic mechanisms in the moment.

Student Mental Health and Well-Being: Research with WILLO

Research on student well-being at campus scale, conducted with WILLO, UC San Diego’s campus-wide platform, toward support that reaches an entire student population rather than only those who seek it.

Preference Learning: Aligning AI to Human Preferences

Preference-based alignment for speech and audio: how people judge generated output, and whether annotation protocols validated on text transfer to what they hear.

CLARO: Turning Complexity into Clarity

A Design Lab platform for collaborative, data-driven decisions on complex societal problems, combining data integration, modeling, simulation, and immersive visualization.

Contouring for Radiation Oncology: Interactive Training and Feedback

iContourVRContouriConTutor

Interactive training systems for radiation oncology contouring: iContour, VRContour, and iConTutor deliver practice, immersive delineation, and automated feedback to residents.

HoloStroke: Holographic Telestroke and Remote Assessment

Mixed reality for stroke care at a distance: holograms of a patient, or of their imaging, are placed in three-dimensional space and transmitted to a remote stroke neurologist.

UnBIASED: Understanding Biased patient-provider Interactions And Supporting Enhanced Discourse

ConverSenseConverStandSocialLM

Social signal processing for hidden bias in primary care: automated analysis of patient-provider communication, and feedback designed together with patients and doctors.

Designing Smart and Autonomous Vehicles

DriveSimQuest

Human-centered design and evaluation of automated driving, from the explanations an autonomous vehicle gives its passenger to the sensing and coaching of the person behind the wheel.

ARTEMIS: Augmented Reality Technology-Enabled reMote Integrated Surgery

Surgical telementoring in mixed reality: a remote expert sees the novice’s operating field in three dimensions and guides the procedure from anywhere.

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Designing and Studying eXtended Reality

PintARHoloCPRAcuVR

Foundational XR research at HXI: interaction techniques for headsets and spatial displays, and immersive environments used as controlled settings for studying behavior.

eXtended Collaboration

XR systems for remote collaboration on physical tasks, using spatial computing and alternate 3D representations to reduce the effort of communicating across distance.

Mixed-Dimensional Information Spaces

MemoVisPaperToPlaceSweeperBot

Interfaces spanning 2D documents and 3D space: MemoVis, PaperToPlace, and SweeperBot support design feedback, spatialized instructions, and accessible 3D browsing.

RECODE|Health: Research Center for Optimal Digital Ethics

Empirical research and practical guidance for the ethics of digital health research, spanning consent, privacy, and the terms under which data is collected.

These projects come from earlier phases of the lab’s work. The methods, systems, and collaborations they established run through the research above, and each page remains available in full.

VOLI: Voice Assistant for Quality of Life and Healthcare Improvement in Aging Populations

A context-aware voice assistant for older adults, supporting everyday quality of life and connecting them to their healthcare.

Mitigating Uncertainty in Online Learning at Scale

Learning aids for online education at scale: minimally-invasive context about a learner drives timely AI and peer support.

UbiStroke: Multimodal Sensing of Stroke-Related Deficits

A multimodal sensing approach to acute stroke assessment: body posture, facial droop, pupil tracking, and speech are combined into a per-patient signature of stroke-related deficits.

PrototipAR/PintAR: Rapid Prototyping in Augmented Reality

Sketch-based prototyping for augmented reality: designers draw spatial experiences directly in the space where they will be used.

ChronoSense and Lab-in-a-Box

Multimodal data capture for real-world studies: synchronised sensor streams, with real-time and near-time analysis through an extensible plugin interface.

HoloCPR: Designing and Evaluating a Mixed Reality Interface for Time-Critical Emergencies

Real-time resuscitation guidance in mixed reality: visual and spatial cues sit on the patient, so a novice sees what to do where it has to be done.

Embodied Coding

A programming environment in AR and VR built on embodied tools and spatial metaphors rather than the traditional wall of text.

DIY Masks

Two do-it-yourself mask designs built during the COVID-19 shortage, with tested filtration performance and open instructions for making them.