Dear Colleagues,

The term XR (extended reality), which includes the technology of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality, is beginning to become more widely known. In recent years, XR has made remarkable progress, and usage expectations are very high. There is no doubt about the potential of this technology.

As some basic research has come to fruition, expectations for XR have increased, as have opportunities for it to be applied in different fields. That way, these technologies provide great opportunities for education, medicine, architecture, Industry 4.0, e-commerce, gaming, healthcare, the military, emergency response, entertainment, engineering, advertising, entertainment, retail, etc., and we can consider that we are facing a technological change as big as the massive use of PC, internet or smartphone was at its time.

The applications that we can develop through smartphones, tablets, and new XR wearable (glasses and headset) devices that free workers and users from having to hold on to devices are more than we can imagine and can help to save time and reduce production costs, improving quality of life.

In the manufacturing field, the use of augmented reality has been the topic of conversation for years, but actual deployment has been slow. This is changing, however, as manufacturers explore the technology in their plants and move beyond pilots and trials to the wider, day-to-day use of AR. Although AR is still at an early stage in manufacturing, there is a lot of innovation going on, and a lot of movement in the industry around AR. On the other hand, XR provides great opportunities in education and training that are not possible with traditional instruction methods and other technologies used in education. VR, AR, and MR allow learners, in a safe way, to experience environments and virtual scenarios that would normally be dangerous to learn in. Even for academic institutions and companies, it is difficult to have some infrastructures to teach or train their learners or workers. Unlike some traditional instruction methods, VR, AR, and MR applications offer consistent education and training that do not vary from instructor to instructor. These virtual technologies also afford the development of psychomotor skills through physical 3D interactions with virtual elements. This is especially important when resources are limited for training purposes.

This Special Issue calls for many interesting studies, applications, and experiences that will open up new uses of XR. In addition to research that has steadily improved existing issues, we welcome research papers that present new possibilities of VR, AR, and MX. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• VR/AR/MR applications: manufacturing, healthcare, virtual travel, e-sports, games, cultural heritage, military, e-commerce, military, psychology, medicine, emergency response, entertainment, engineering, advertising, etc.
• Brain science for VR/AR/MX
• VR/AR/MX collaboration
• Context awareness for VR/AR
• Education with VR/AR/MX
• Use 360° video for VR
• Display technologies for VR/AR/MX
• Human–computer interactions in VR/AR/MX
• Human factors in VR/AR/MX
• Perception/presence in VR/AR/MX
• Physiological sensing for VR/AR/MX
• Cybersickness
• User experience/usability in VR/AR/MX
• Interfaces for VR/AR
• Virtual humans/avatars in VR/AR/MX
• Wellbeing with VR/AR/MX
• Human behavior sensing
• Gesture interface
• Interactive simulation
• New interaction design for VR/AR/MR
• AR/VR devices and technologies integrated
• Issues on real world and virtual world integration
• Social aspects in VR/AR/MR interaction

Prof. Jorge Martin-Gutierrez
Guest Editor

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• Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality
• Interactive simulation
• HCI (human–computer interaction)
• Human-centered design