Demonstration at Creativity and Cognition in London

At Creativity & Cognition 2026, Anh Pham and Lars Erik Holmquist will be presenting the demonstration Shared Neural Streams: Generating Real-Time Immersive Experiences with EEG-Driven Generative AI. We use brain data and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to understand the connection between human mental states and physical experiences. The system combines prompts in StreamDiffusion with Electroencephalography (EEG) data to create visual and interactive elements in an Unreal Engine environment in real time. The demo showcases the concept process we have called the closed-loop immersive model. The intention is to allow users to understand each other with non-verbal interaction. 

Please come and try it out at C&C 2026 in London on July 13-16!

Guest Lecture Event: Prof Damian Murphy - XR Stories

We are very happy to welcome Professor Damian Murphy from University of York to give a guest lecture at NTU! He will talk about his experience from the XR Stories R&D cluster.

Time: Wednesday, 27 May 2026 from 12:30 to 14:15

Place: NTU Newton, NEWN34

The event will start with lunch followed by the talk and Q&A.

"XR Stories XR Stories: Building and Supporting a Creative Industries R&D Cluster – What We Did and What We Learned.

In 2018 the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council invested more than £50m in Wave 1 of the Creative Industries Cluster Programme, supporting economic growth in nine locations around the UK through collaborative, University-led R&D, targeted at specific sectors of the creative industries. XR Stories was one of these projects. It was led by the University of York to deliver next generation immersive and interactive digital storytelling experiences for the Yorkshire and Humber region, representing more than £6m people and 600 businesses across film, TV, games and related media.

Over six years XR Stories delivered more than 110 projects, 16 studentships, and 80 internships, and delivered training and support for creative industries businesses and individuals wanting to break into technology-driven creative storytelling. This included a new £1.25m investment in a business facing R&D lab facility within our city centre to act as a front door to future collaboration with our University researchers. Since 2024 XR Stories has refocused its activities and supports projects both nationally and locally, in the latter case as a key innovation intermediary as part of the newly formed Mayoral Combined Authority of York and North Yorkshire.

 

This presentation will highlight some of the highlights, successes, challenges and learning from the XR Stories project and look to what is emerging next for our work in the context of creative sector R&D across the UK.

Bio:

Damian Murphy is Professor in Sound and Music Computing at the AudioLab in the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology at the University of York, UK, where his research focuses on the development and creative application of immersive audio and virtual acoustic modelling. He is an active sound artist, and the Director of the XR Stories Creative Industries R&D Partnership and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council XR Network+ project, both exploring the next generation of convergent immersive and interactive media technologies for the UK’s creative industries and wider digital economy.

Pictures and publications from CHI 2026 in Barcelona

We had a great time at CHI, the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona, the leading international conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Members from CXL presented 4 posters, took part in workshops and the Student Mentoring Program, and gave 2 talks at the pre-CHI Fringe event organised by Northumbria University. 

Here are some pictures and below are links to the publications in the open-access ACM Digital Library.

 

  

CHI 2026 Posters

Malindu Ehelagasthenna, Lars Erik Holmquist, Carlos Oliveira, Arash M. Shahidi, Pasindu Lugoda, and Theo Hughes-Riley. 2026. Haptic Pillow Sleeve: Enhancing Sleep Quality by Providing Vital Sound Awareness Through Vibrotactile Feedback. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 361, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3798362

Yifan Kang, Glyn Lawson, and Xu Sun. 2026. How Self-Confidence and Gender Shape Training Experience in Mixed Reality: A Case Study in Flight Simulator Training. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 379, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3798560

Anh Thi Ngoc Pham. 2026. The Inclusive Metaverse: Using Self-discrepancy Theory and Artificial Intelligence to Create Personalized Immersive Experiences. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 908, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3799197

Seher Singh, Richard Bibb, and Lars Erik Holmquist. 2026. Between Curiosity and Clunkiness: Why Virtual Museums Still Fall Short. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 117, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3798315