Special Seminar - Chang Xiao, "Bridging the Physical-Digital Divide with Tangible, Ambient and Context-Aware Interaction"

Abstract: 
Since the invention of personal computing devices, such as PCs and mobile devices, we have gained unprecedented access to the digital world. As Extended Reality (XR) technologies mature, the boundary between the physical and digital realms is becoming increasingly blurred. This shift raises a compelling question: Can we use XR to transform our everyday physical environment into a fully interactive computing platform, expanding our interaction space and unlocking greater interactive potential?
In this talk, I will discuss my work on integrating physical and digital systems to create novel computing environments that enhance immersiveness and usability. Leveraging techniques from computer vision, computational design, and generative AI, we have developed several interactive systems that provide users with tangible, ambient, and intuitive experiences. These approaches demonstrate how physical and digital systems can be seamlessly integrated to create adaptive computing platforms, enabling new forms of interactivity and bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds.

Bio:
Chang Xiao is currently a Research Scientist at Adobe Research. His broad interests lie at the intersection of HCI, applied AI, and AR/VR, with a special focus on leveraging computational methods to develop novel interaction and sensing techniques that connect digital and physical experiences. His work has been published in a wide range of top computer science venues, including CHI, UIST, SIGGRAPH, NeurIPS, CVPR, and ICLR.
His research has also made a broad impact beyond academia. At Adobe, he has led innovations in human-AI interaction and AR/VR experiences, which have been showcased at the Adobe Summit (2022 and 2024) and integrated into Adobe products, reaching millions of users. His work has also received media coverage and interviews from CNN, Adweek, CACM, and IEEE Spectrum.