Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU)’s Post

The 2026 IEEE Metaverse Grand Challenge for Simulation-Based Learning closes on August 15. ➡️ The two winning teams will each receive travel reimbursements of up to $2,500 to attend the 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Emerging Metaverse (ISEMV) or another event designated by the IEEE Metaverse Initiative. In addition, the top entry in Sustainable Smart Cities & Urban Innovation will receive the $1,000 IEEE Smart Cities Award. Learn more and submit your project: https://lnkd.in/dMJbm398 Looking forward to seeing your innovative ideas! IEEE Future Directions IEEE Metaverse IEEE Smart Cities Jeewika Ranaweera Dejan Milojicic Louis Nisiotis Karen Alexander Saaveethya Sivakumar Cecilia Metra Andriani Piki Pavana Prakash Mohamed Saeed Darweesh, PhD Marios Raspopoulos Aditya Dhakal Sin-Kuen Hawkins

Drumroll, please! 🥁 Here’s the first batch of speakers for MatchXR 2026. 🔥 This year’s theme, “Beyond Human Horizons”, takes us to the intersection of XR, AI, robotics, and other intelligent systems. Meet the experts joining us to explore what lies ahead and the possibilities that arise when these emerging technologies converge: 🎤 Jeremy Dalton, XRHQ As an XR strategist, author, and founder of XRHQ, Jeremy has spent years exploring how immersive technologies create real-world value. His live demo, Invisible Evidence, will take us through some of the most impactful XR use cases across industries — and look at how we can better capture the evidence behind them. 🌍 Michael Barngrover, XR4Europe Managing Director of XR4Europe and a passionate XR capacity builder, developer, and researcher, Michael works to strengthen XR communities across Europe and beyond. 👓 Valerie Riffaud Cangelosi, CNXR (Conseil National de la XR) Valerie is a recognized specialist in connected glasses, with deep expertise spanning AI, AR, and wearable technology. Through her work with CNXR and the SILMO Circle of Experts, she helps bridge the gap between the optical and tech industries. 🎬 Heleen Rouw, CIIIC From film and media to immersive experiences, Heleen has built her career around bringing creative ideas and audiences together. Today, as Programme Director of CIIIC, she works to strengthen the Dutch immersive ecosystem and bring creators, researchers, businesses, and public organisations to the same table. 🏢 Mark Sage, AR for Enterprise Alliance What does it actually take to make enterprise AR work past the pilot stage? As Executive Director of the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA), Mark will share insights into practical AR adoption, from the problems it can solve today to the ROI businesses are seeing — and the barriers that still stand in the way of scale. And this is just the beginning! Make sure to follow MatchXR to stay updated on the latest news. 🎫 What are you waiting for? Grab your FREE ticket here: https://lnkd.in/eE8f6cVP MatchXR 2026 is made possible by Metaverse Finland Ecosystem, DIMECC, and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. Sarita Blomqvist Santeri Saarinen Tiina Vuorio Jussi Salonen #MatchXR #MatchXR2026 #EmergingTech #XR #AI #Robotics #TechEvents #Helsinki #Finland

Building Europe's immersive future, together. 🚀 🎆 The 𝘽𝙚𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙓𝙍 𝘾𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 brings together Horizon Europe initiatives working at the forefront of Extended Reality (XR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and immersive technologies. By fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange, and interoperability, we are helping shape a stronger European ecosystem that supports innovation across education, industry, training, telepresence, creative sectors, and beyond. We share a common ambition: advancing human-centric technologies that empower learning, collaboration, and digital transformation across #Europe 🇪🇺 . Building the future. Together. 💪 💜 Featuring all 𝘽𝙚𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙓𝙍 𝘾𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 projects: 𝘼𝙈𝙋𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙔, CORTEX2, XR5.0 Project, XR4ED, HECOF Project, 𝙈𝘼𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙍, augMENTOR project, XR2Learn, 𝙎𝙀𝙍𝙈𝘼𝙎, TRANSMIXR, XR2INDUSTRY project, MOTIVATE XR, SPIRIT project, OPENVERSE, and VOXReality. Know more on our Synergy page: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eGHbtmuc.

Immersive technology will not scale if every experience must be rebuilt for every device. Two recent industry signals reinforce the same lesson. At SIGGRAPH 2026, Khronos is highlighting OpenXR spatial capabilities—including shared approaches to spatial anchors, scene understanding and environment detection across supported platforms. Meanwhile, Bluetooth SIG reports that Auracast™ is moving into real-world deployment across smartphones, televisions, public venues, consumer audio products and hearing devices. The common thread is not a single headset or gadget. It is interoperability. At LuvX, we see the interaction layer as the system that coordinates: • Intelligent content • AI-driven decisions • Immersive environments • Connected and responsive devices • Real-time user feedback When these components can communicate through well-designed interfaces, creators can reach more devices, manufacturers can integrate new experiences faster, and users gain greater choice. This principle extends beyond entertainment. It can support more accessible public experiences, responsive robotics, assisted-living environments, rehabilitation applications and personalised wellbeing technology—subject to appropriate evidence and safeguards. The next generation of digital experiences will not be defined by one device. It will be defined by how intelligently many systems work together. Where do you think interoperability is most urgently needed: XR, robotics, healthcare or connected entertainment? Sources: Khronos Group — OpenXR at SIGGRAPH 2026; Bluetooth SIG — Auracast adoption update, June 2026. #InteractiveTechnology #ImmersiveTechnology #OpenStandards

Bio+HealthTech INTERNATIONAL 2026 invites you to an insightful session exploring how immersive technologies are transforming healthcare and breaking boundaries in medical services. Beyond Boundaries: Healthcare in the Metaverse Remark: This session will be conducted in Thai. Featuring: Pansavuth Khehasukcharoen Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Corpolygon Co., Ltd. Medical Extended Reality (XR) Project Developer Asst. Prof. Wichitra Liangswangwong, M.D. Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital Kritsada Chumwanich, M.D. Somdech Phra Pinklao Hospital, Naval Medical Department This session will explore: → Applications of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Digital Twin technologies in healthcare → Medical XR for surgical simulation, mental health treatment, and medical education → The evolution of Telemedicine toward “Virtual Clinics” and more effective doctor–patient communication → Opportunities and challenges in adopting immersive technologies across healthcare → How the Metaverse can help reduce healthcare inequalities and expand access to medical services → Building a more connected and borderless healthcare ecosystem Discover how immersive technologies can move healthcare beyond the limitations of time and location, creating new possibilities for medical services, treatment, education, and patient care. 🧬 Bio+HealthTech INTERNATIONAL 2026 📅 2–4 September 2026 📍 EH102–104 | BITEC BANGKOK 🔗 Register for the Session: https://lnkd.in/gCgcMXQB #BioHealthTech2026 #MetaverseHealthcare #MedicalXR #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #VirtualReality #AugmentedReality #Telemedicine #HealthTech #HealthcareTechnology

🔎 XR and Data: What Happens Behind the Experience Every immersive #XR experience depends on data being captured, processed and translated into responsive interactions. #Data supports user tracking, sensor interpretation and real-time rendering, determining how accurately, smoothly and reliably an XR system responds. Understanding these processes is essential for professionals developing XR applications that must perform reliably on different devices, for different users and in real-world contexts. Through its double-degree Master’s programme in Human-Computer Interaction and Design with an XR specialisation, alongside dedicated self-standing learning modules, ARISE - Advanced Realities for Innovation and Skills Enhancement helps learners explore how data is used within XR systems, connecting technical foundations with real-world applications in digital environments. 👉 Learn more about ARISE: https://lnkd.in/dXtKi9c2 #ARISE #XR #ExtendedReality #HumanComputerInteraction #DigitalSkills #HaDEA

I’m very happy to share my new News and Perspectives article in the JMIR Publications Journal of Medical Internet Research: From Spatial AI to Clinical Readiness: Lessons From Augmented World Expo USA 2026 https://lnkd.in/eWbDFRVD After attending AWE USA 2026 in Long Beach, what stayed with me most was not a single device or demo, but a shift in the conversation. XR is no longer only about headsets. It is being reshaped around spatial AI, smart glasses, wearable computing, robotics, digital twins and enterprise infrastructure. For health care, this opens important possibilities, but also a more demanding question: Can we turn immersive experiences into reliable clinical processes? A good XR demo can show that something is technically possible. It does not show whether a hospital can maintain it, clean it, update it, evaluate it, reimburse it or place it safely inside a patient pathway. That was the main lesson I took from AWE: the future of clinical XR will not be decided only by the most impressive devices. It will be decided by the health systems capable of integrating these tools responsibly into real workflows. Thank you to JMIR Publications for the opportunity to contribute this recap, and to AWE, Sonya Haskins, Ori Inbar, the Healthcare & Wellness community, IVRHA (International Virtual Reality and Healthcare Association), American Medical Extended Reality Association (AMXRA) and the many colleagues who made the discussions so rich. As I wrote in the piece: The future rarely arrives as a keynote. More often, it arrives as a workflow. #JMIR #AWE2026 #iSpatial #XR #SpatialAI #SpatialComputing #DigitalHealth #HealthcareXR #HealthTech

🌟 ITC Spotlight #22: Professor Roope Raisamo Today in our ITC Spotlight series, we feature Professor Roope Raisamo, whose research is shaping the future of how people interact with technology. As Head of the TAUCHI Research Center at Tampere University, Professor Raisamo explores human–technology interaction, multimodal user interfaces, extended reality, and haptic technologies. His research looks far beyond today's consumer devices, developing intuitive and accessible ways for people to interact with digital systems through touch, gaze, speech, and other natural forms of communication. "Technology is always used by people. At TAUCHI, we understand the capabilities and limitations of people as well as the potential of technology. This enables us to design user experiences that are as efficient and intuitive as possible." Read the interview to discover how research conducted today is helping create the user interfaces of tomorrow—and why human-centred design remains at the heart of technological innovation. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dJwvtvS2 #ITCSpotlight #TampereUniversity #HumanComputerInteraction #HCI #UserInterfaces #ExtendedReality #XR #Haptics #Research #Innovation Photo: Antti Yrjönen

Sometimes, independence only becomes visible when it is no longer taken for granted. For many people, taking public transport is simply practical: you plan a route, get on, transfer if needed and arrive where you need to be. But for many neurodivergent young people, an everyday situation like that can be full of uncertainty. What do you do when the bus does not arrive? When the station is busier than expected? When you need to ask someone for help, but you are not sure how? That is the core reason why Changefied exists. Not because VR is interesting in itself, but because it gives people the opportunity to safely practise situations that can feel stressful, complex or overwhelming in real life. In a virtual environment, it is okay if something goes wrong. You can try again, build confidence and gradually practise skills that make a real difference outside the headset. With Virtual OV, we help young people learn to travel more independently. But in reality, it is about something bigger than public transport. It is about participation, confidence and feeling more in control of situations that may seem obvious to others. If technology can contribute to that, we should not see it as a gadget, but as a bridge between support and independence. That is the why of Changefied: helping people become more independent in the real world by first giving them a safe place to practise in a world where mistakes are allowed.

I am glad to announce that my first co-authored article "Symbiotic or Substitutive? A Meta-Analysis of the Convergent Effects of AI, AR, VR and IoT on Promotion Management" has been published in the Journal of Promotion Management (listed in Scopus Q2, WoS and ABDC B ranking). Special thanks to my guide Dr. Rituparna Basu, whose unwavering guidance and support made this possible. I would also like to thank the editors and reviewers for their constructive feedback across every round of revision. Our paper meta-analyses 91 empirical studies covering 34,819 consumers to examine whether AI, AR, VR and IoT delivers more than deploying them individually in promotion management. The findings carry practical relevance for marketers weighing whether to expand their technology stack or consolidate it. You can download, cite and read the article in the following link - https://lnkd.in/d9qwGxV2 #AritficialIntelligence #VirtualReality #AugmentedReality #InternetofThings #PromotionManagement #MetaAnalysis