Empathic Computing Laboratory

10/08/2026

Prof Mark Billinghurst is presenting at BrainLink this week, sharing ECL’s work on empathic computing and the future of human-centric spatial AI.

His talk, Empathic Computing: Designing Human-Centric Spatial AI, explores how spatial AI can be designed around human experience, connection, and collaboration — a timely direction as immersive and intelligent systems become more embedded in everyday life.

You can view the slides here: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/2026-brainlink-presentaton-empathic-computing-designing-human-centric-spatial-ai/289106556



(📷 by Youngho Lee)

21/07/2026

Have you ever wanted to add a sense of touch to virtual and augmented reality?

Earlier this month, Mark Billinghurst helped run a free 5‑day Haptics in XR Winter School at Adelaide University (Mawson Lakes, Adelaide).

The program brought together expert talks, interactive demos, and hands‑on learning activities—no prior technical background required.

▶️ Lecture playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN84pXpAj-SM&si=kERzFILDZMBBX0mw

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30/06/2026

Continuing our series: What does it take to feel like you're truly working alongside someone — when you're on opposite sides of the world?

Dr. Huidong Bai has been building the answer for over a decade.

As a Senior Research Fellow at the Empathic Computing Lab, Huidong specialises in remote collaborative Mixed Reality: systems that capture physical environments in 3D and share them with remote users in real time. His work integrates gaze cues, hand gestures, spatial reconstruction, and physiological sensing to make remote collaboration feel more like being there.

Highlights from his work:
→ Published at CHI on eye gaze + gesture sharing for MR remote collaboration
→ Co-developed the Haptic Hongi installation — using AR and haptic feedback to facilitate the traditional Māori greeting across cultural boundaries
→ Mobile AR teleconferencing work done during a stint at Qualcomm Vuforia
→ Engineering Director at Envisage AR, building industrial MR applications

His PhD was supervised by Prof. Mark Billinghurst at HIT Lab NZ. He's been solving hard problems in spatial computing ever since.

Dr. Huidong Bai is a Research Fellow at the Empathic Computing Laboratory (ECL) established within the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI, University of Auckland). His areas of research include exploring remote collaborative Mixed Reality (MR) interfaces with spatial scene reconstruction and [.....

29/06/2026

Celebrating our fearless leader! The lab got together in Auckland last week for Prof. Mark Billinghurst’s birthday.
And yes… the cake was very good.
Happy birthday, Mark—from all of us at ECL!

22/06/2026

🎤 Keynote highlight from Digital Mental Health International Conference 2026 (DMH 2026)

Prof. Mark Billinghurst presented “Using Empathic Computing to Address Mental Health Issues” at DMH 2026, hosted at Tung Wah College (King’s Park Campus), Hong Kong.

Empathic computing brings together human-centred design, immersive technology, and affective/multimodal sensing — with exciting opportunities for real-world digital mental health impact.

15/06/2026

Conference travel perk: a Kamakura side-quest ✨

During the NII Shonan Meeting, Mark took a break to visit Tsurugaoka Hachimangū Shrine in Kamakura — one of the area’s most iconic Shinto shrines.

Vermilion buildings, a torii-lined approach, and peaceful grounds that make the perfect reset between sessions.

(Photos from Tsurugaoka Hachimangū Shrine, Kamakura.)

14/06/2026

Welcome our newest member to the Empathic Computing Lab: Chenyao Diao!

Chenyao started her PhD on 1 June, joining the research project “He karapitipitinga mariko — Immersive regenerative tourism experiences in Aotearoa” with Mark Billinghurst.

She completed an MSc. in Media Technology at Technische Universität Ilmenau, and a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering at the Communication University of China.

We’re excited to have Chenyao on the team — welcome!

12/06/2026

That’s a wrap on NII Shonan Meeting #244 in Japan 🇯🇵

This week’s theme was “AR and AI: Everyday AR through AI-in-the-Loop” — a fantastic few days of deep discussion, idea-sharing, and collaboration.

Thanks to the organisers and to the full delegation of attendees for making it such a great research retreat.

(Sharing the full group photo here!)

11/06/2026

Some behind-the-scenes photos from NII Shonan Meeting #244 ("AR and AI: Everyday AR through AI-in-the-Loop").

This is what a research retreat looks like in practice: focused discussion, lots of sketching, and a room full of clever people working through ideas together.

We’ll share more highlights soon — but for now, here’s the “hardworking team” energy we love to see.

11/06/2026

🇯🇵 Mark Billinghurst is in Japan this week for NII Shonan Meeting No.244 — “AR and AI: Everyday AR through AI-in-the-Loop”.

These Shonan meetings are intensive research retreats that bring together experts from around the world for several days of deep discussion. This one is focused on the future of everyday AR and what it looks like when AI is “in the loop” as a real-time collaborator.

We’ll share more highlights (and photos) soon.

Learn more:

NII Shonan Meeting is a series of informatics seminars managed by NII, aiming to promote informatics research by providing premier venue in order for the leading scientists, young researchers, and practitioners to exchange, discuss and explore their research findings and cutting-edge topics.