【UIST’26】Body Sublimation: Designing State-Changing Extended Hand

Title: Body Sublimation: Designing State-Changing Extended Hand for Embodied Out-of-Reach Interaction

Project Page: https://masaohta0423.github.io/body-sublimation/

Abstract: Recent research in extended reality and robotics has explored ways to extend human reach beyond the physical body. XR supports embodied interaction at a distance but cannot manipulate the real world; robot-mediated systems provide physical capability but often disrupt embodiment through latency, workspace limits, kinematic mismatch, and collision avoidance. Body Sublimation combines the perceptual flexibility of XR with a hidden robotic manipulator. A virtual hand becomes the user’s extended body while both the original hand and robotic hand are visually removed using diminished reality. The extended hand changes between a free, virtual gas state and a physically grounded solid state, allowing users to reach through obstacles and manipulate real objects while maintaining a continuous sense of embodiment.

Authors: Masahiro Ohta, Reigo Ban, Hideaki Nii, Guillaume Gourmelen, Takuji Narumi, Mauricio Sousa, Takatoshi Yoshida, Kouta Minamizawa

source