The 1st International Workshop on AI-Mediated Heads-Up Interaction in Wearable Mixed Reality
(AHIMR'26)

ISMAR 2026 — October 5, 2026 — Bari, Italy (Hybrid)
As smartglasses and head-mounted displays move from labs into everyday life, a fundamental design
challenge has come into focus: it is no longer enough to decide what to display on a wearable MR
device. The harder question is how an AI agent should decide — what to surface, in what form, and
when — on behalf of a user whose attention is divided between the physical and digital world.
AHIMR'26 focuses specifically on AI-mediated interaction in mixed reality: systems where an AI
agent, grounded in resource-rational models of human attention, decides how information is

transformed, timed, and delivered through wearable MR devices. This is the defining mechanism of
the Heads-Up Computing paradigm and the most consequential open problem in the field today. We
invite researchers and practitioners working across sensing, AI systems, HCI, and MR to share work,
debate open questions, and help shape a shared research agenda.

Topics of Interest

Cluster 1 — Sensing & Modelling (how the AI knows the user's state)
• Real-time attention and cognitive load estimation from commodity wearable sensors
• Context and physical activity recognition for adaptive MR interfaces
• Computational models and simulations of user behaviour for wearable MR
• Multimodal user state inference combining gaze, voice, IMU, and physiological signals

Cluster 2 — Transformation & Delivery (how the AI re-authors and times information)
• Conversational and multimodal information access for wearable MR
• Intelligent retrieval and summarisation for heads-up interaction
• Context-aware search and recommendation in mixed reality environments
• Multimodal output selection and combination (voice, gaze, peripheral display, haptics)
• Proactive AI assistance and knowledge surfacing on wearable MR devices
• Delivery optimisation under divided attention: timing, urgency, form, and density

Cluster 3 — Trust, Agency & Ethics (what it means for AI to act on your behalf in MR)
• User trust and control when AI suppresses, modifies, or delays information
• Social acceptability and privacy implications of AI-mediated wearable MR in public
• Human agency and oversight in AI-mediated MR systems
• Evaluation methodologies for real-world deployment of AI-mediated wearable MR

Submission Format
Papers should use the IEEE Computer Society VGTC conference format (available at
http://junctionpublishing.org/vgtc/Pages/Instructions.aspx). We invite two types of submissions:
• Full papers: 4–6 pages, presenting completed research
• Short papers: 2–3 pages, presenting work-in-progress or position statements
All submissions will undergo a single-blind peer review process by the program committee.

Key Dates
• CfP available: June 19, 2026
• Paper submission deadline: July 5, 2026
• Acceptance notification: July 17, 2026
• Camera-ready due: July 31, 2026
• Workshop: October 5, 2026

Accepted papers will be published in the ISMAR 2026 Adjunct Proceedings on IEEE Xplore.

Contact: shengdong.zhao@cityu.edu.hk

Organizers: Shengdong Zhao (City University of Hong Kong), Mark Billinghurst (University of
Auckland), Ian Oakley (KAIST), Haiming Liu (University of Southampton), Hai-Ning Liang (HKUST
Guangzhou), Nuwan Janaka (City University of Hong Kong)