Presence in Extended Reality: Holoportation, Haptic Interaction, and Intelligent Virtual Humans

The PRESENCE project envisions transforming the XR landscape by overcoming key technological limitations. This Research Topic is inspired by the project: https://presence-xr.eu/The study of presence—the subjective feeling of “being there” in a mediated or virtual environment—has been central to virtual reality research since the 1990s, when Nat Durlach founded Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. Although early work was inspired by teleoperation systems, where users felt physically co-located with remote robots, the field has since expanded across virtual, augmented, and mixed reality platforms. Over the past three decades, advances in display, tracking, and rendering technologies have dramatically improved realism, interactivity, and immersion, yet fundamental questions remain. Why do users continue to report similar subjective intensities of presence despite vast technological leaps? How has our understanding of presence evolved as virtual and physical realities increasingly merge?Presence is now recognized as a multidimensional construct encompassing place illusion (being in a depicted environment), plausibility (believability of events), social presence (co-existence with others), and body ownership (identifying with a virtual body). These components draw upon different perceptual and cognitive mechanisms and impose diverse technical demands. The contemporary expansion of Extended Reality (XR) technologies—spanning real-time volumetric capture, multimodal haptic systems, and intelligent virtual agents—offers unprecedented tools for engineering and analyzing these experiences. However, these same advances raise new experimental, theoretical, and ethical challenges regarding agency, trust, inclusion, and authenticity in human–technology interaction.Three converging research areas are transforming presence in XR. First, advances in real-time volumetric capture and holoportation now allow remote participants to appear as photorealistic 3D reconstructions, streamed and integrated into shared immersive spaces. Second, multimodal haptic interfaces—wearable gloves, vests, and tangible controllers—enable tactile social interactions and synchronized multi-user manipulation of virtual objects, enhancing co-presence and plausibility. Third, Intelligent Virtual Humans powered by foundation models, multimodal perception, expressive animation, and realistic non-verbal behavior are evolving from scripted characters into credible social partners. When combined, these elements produce highly immersive, hyper-realistic environments that challenge traditional presence models and demand new interdisciplinary perspectives.This Research Topic aims to advance the science, engineering, and ethics of presence in Extended Reality as it becomes more photorealistic, multisensory, and socially dynamic. It particularly encourages cross-disciplinary contributions that bridge technical innovations with perceptual and experiential outcomes. Key questions include: How can presence be measured in complex multi-user settings involving holoported individuals and autonomous agents? What kinds of agency and accountability do users ascribe to AI-driven avatars? How can system designers ensure accessibility, equity, and informed consent in hyper-realistic simulations that may depict sensitive or potentially distressing experiences?To gather further insights into these frontier challenges, we welcome papers on the following themes:• Real-time volumetric capture, compression, and quality-of-experience in holoportation• Wearable and networked haptic interaction for social touch and collaboration• Intelligent Virtual Humans with foundation model–based dialogue and multimodal perception• Multidimensional metrics and frameworks for presence and embodiment• Human-centred and ethical design for inclusion, privacy, and cultural sensitivity• Application domains including education, healthcare, training, remote collaboration, and cultural heritageWe encourage studies that connect two or more of the three technological pillars—holoportation, haptics, and virtual humans—and those that critically reflect on methodological, ethical, or theoretical implications of presence in a new era of Extended Reality. Topic editors: Ke Li, Joan Llobera, Michael Wiesing Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82527/presence-in-extended-reality-holoportation-haptic-interaction-and-intelligent-virtual-humans