Neurophysiological and Motor Sensing for Human Monitoring in Mixed-Reality

Dear Colleagues,

Mixed-reality (MR) technologies (including Augmented, Virtual, and extended reality) are increasingly adopted to replicate complex operational, clinical, industrial, and educational scenarios. Their diffusion is driven by the ability to simulate demanding environments with improved safety, reduced logistical constraints and costs, and enhanced controllability. As MR ecosystems mature, however, the need for rigorous monitoring of human behaviour and physiology becomes essential not only to understand how users interact with immersive systems but also to quantify the cognitive, emotional, and motor effects these technologies elicit, evaluate the outcomes they produce, and refine interaction paradigms to achieve more natural and effective human-system coupling.

This Special Issue, “Neurophysiological and Motor Sensing for Human Monitoring in Mixed-Reality”, focuses on sensor-based approaches for assessing human states and behaviours in immersive environments to enhance performance and adaptation to the user’s profile.

Relevant neurophysiological modalities include electroencephalography (EEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), electrocardiography (ECG), heart-rate and heart-rate variability (HR/HRV), electrodermal activity (EDA/GSR), pupillometry and ocular metrics, respiration monitoring, muscular activation and electromyography (EMG), facial EMG or micro-expression tracking, and body-temperature sensing. Motor-sensing technologies of interest encompass kinematic measurements (position, velocity, acceleration, joint angles, range of motion), head and eye tracking, posture and gesture analysis, and fine-grained hand-gesture tracking.

We welcome contributions that advance sensor development, multimodal data fusion, real-time state estimation, human performance assessment, signal processing, and modelling techniques tailored to MR environments. Application domains include healthcare and rehabilitation, clinical and surgical training, industrial operations, safety-critical procedures, education, experimental research, gaming and entertainment, and collaborative or social-interaction scenarios. Studies demonstrating how sensing technologies support user monitoring, assess training or task outcomes, or enable more adaptive and natural interaction mechanisms within MR systems are of particular interest.

Prof. Dr. Gaetano Cascini
Dr. Federico Morosi
Guest Editors

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