KAIST to unveil next-generation spatial AI and XR technologies

Next-generation spatial AI and XR technologies — including avatar systems that restore a user's emotions and interactions in real time, haptic technology delivering multisensory experiences, and multi-sensor-based digital twin technology applicable to industrial sites and cultural heritage — are set to be unveiled to the public.

KAIST said its Graduate School of Metaverse will present key research achievements in next-generation spatial AI and extended reality at the Virtual Convergence Industry Expo 2026, to be held June 10-12 at COEX in Seoul. The technologies are designed to perceive and understand real-world spaces and to analyze and interact with the positions, movements and conditions of people and objects.

The KAIST Graduate School of Metaverse demonstrated its standing among the world's top research institutions earlier this year when it presented 12 oral papers at IEEE VR 2026 — the most prestigious academic conference in virtual reality — the second-highest total among universities and research institutions worldwide.

The Virtual Convergence Graduate School project is regarded as a proactive policy initiative aimed at systematically cultivating master's and doctoral-level specialists in future core fields — including XR, digital twins and spatial computing — before those markets fully take shape. The program has generated internationally recognized research outcomes in spatial AI, human-computer interaction and virtual convergence systems, while also contributing to the development of key national talent and the accumulation of technological capabilities.

The 2026 Virtual Convergence Innovation Talent Symposium and Achievements Showcase, opening June 10, will feature a broad range of next-generation research results in XR and spatial AI. The KAIST Graduate School of Metaverse plans to highlight its major research achievements, focusing on next-generation immersive interaction technologies and industry-oriented digital twin demonstration cases.

The flagship technologies to be demonstrated include a real-time avatar facial reconstruction system (OFERA), which naturally reproduces facial expressions obscured by XR headsets to enhance immersion in remote meetings and virtual collaboration; underwater immersive haptic interaction (AquaHaptics), which conveys the water resistance and tactile sensations of a virtual underwater environment to the user's fingertips; and a multi-sensor-based cultural heritage digital twin and AR visualization technology, which enables 3D and augmented reality inspection of internal defects in cultural heritage structures.

Additional research results to be showcased include bare-hand XR interaction haptic feedback technology using a smartwatch, and ForceCtrl — an XR ray-casting technology that uses the force of a user's hand gestures to intuitively select and manipulate objects in virtual space.

The KAIST Graduate School of Metaverse, through its Post-Metaverse Research Center, is also advancing the development of the Bridge Time and Space (BTS) platform — a hyper-spatiotemporal virtual convergence platform designed to accumulate and share XR experience and interaction data.

The school is also developing an XR experience sharing platform in collaboration with domestic and international research institutions including New York University, ETRI and KISTI, and plans to launch a demonstration of the "New Jam Daejeon" project — combining Korean culture with XR technology — later this year.

Woo Woontack, dean of the KAIST Graduate School of Metaverse, said the ultimate goal is for South Korea to build its own spatial AI-based XR knowledge infrastructure rather than remain dependent on global platform technologies. "KAIST plans to continuously propose to the government and industry the need to build an open research ecosystem where innovative talent, foundational technologies and industrial sites are persistently connected," he said.