Workshop • In-person • First day of ACM IMX 2026

EFHIC: The Everyday Future of Hybrid Interactive Communications

Communication modalities and platforms designed to facilitate hybrid collaboration environments have undergone significant evolution, driven by two primary factors: prevailing social circumstances and/or the emergence and advancement of technologies. Notably, recent globally adopted innovations in this domain include instant messaging, 2D videoconferencing, and social media platforms. However, communication environments that leverage HMDs or telepresence robotic devices have not yet achieved widespread adoption. What are the reasons behind the non-adoption of these technologies? In this line of discussion, this workshop aims to bring together experts in media experiences to share the communication platforms they use in their daily lives.

Call for Participation Important Dates ACM IMX 2026

Format: full-day workshop, planned for a maximum of 30 attendees.

Topics

Provocative presentations and ideas for discussion are welcome, including (but not limited to):

The different communication channels (verbal, visual, non-verbal, contextual) used today and those that may emerge in the future. Which channels matter most for you? Could new ones become essential?
How familiarity level with people affects hybrid interaction. Do you envision different setups or ranking of communication sources depending on the use case (professional / personal)?
The number of participants and the local/remote ratio in hybrid interactions, and how these factors influence communication channels and their ranking.
Human–Computer Interaction: perception of people mediated by machines (avatars, robots, and other representations).
Hybrid interactions in the future and the potential role of AI: challenges and opportunities.

Call for Participation

EFHIC will be an in-person event, taking place the first day of ACM IMX 2026. In case of strict conditions, online presentations will also be accommodated.

Types of contributions

Short Papers

2–3 pages (excluding references). Accepted papers receive an 8-minute oral presentation slot. Submissions may be work-in-progress, positioning papers, experiment descriptions, etc.

Demos

Demonstrations are welcome, but must be accompanied by a corresponding short paper submission (2–3 pages excluding references). Each demo will have a 1-minute pitch.

Attend as Participant

No demo or presentation? Join the workshop as an attendee and contribute to the discussion.

Paper submission

Submission site: Precision Conference (SIGCHI)

Paper format: Same as the main conference (ACM IMX 2026). See IMX 2026 Call for Papers

Workshop papers will be published in the IMX 2026 adjunct proceedings in the ACM Digital Library. Submissions must follow the established accessibility guidelines. Important note to authors about ACM's new open access publishing model: ACM has introduced a new open access publishing model for the International Conference Proceedings Series (ICPS). Authors based at institutions that are not yet part of the ACM Open program and do not qualify for a full geographic waiver will be required to pay an article processing charge (APC) to publish their ICPS article in the ACM Digital Library. To determine whether or not an APC will be applicable to your article, please follow the detailed guidance here. Further information may be found on the ACM website, in particular, full details of the new ICPS publishing model can be found here, and full details of the ACM Open program can be found here. Please direct all questions about the new model to icps-info@acm.org.

Important Dates

Submission deadlineApril 15, 2026

Notification of acceptanceApril 24, 2026

Camera-ready submissionMay 1, 2026

Deadlines are at 23:59 (AoE) and follow the schedule of the co-located ACM IMX conference.

Workshop Schedule (tentative)

Keynote speaker, short presentations, demo pitches, and group discussion sessions.

Time	Activity
30 min	Welcome & Introductions
30 min + 15 min (Q&A)	Keynote Speaker
1 min * demo	Pitch of the demos
30 min	Coffee Break + Demos time
8 min * speaker	Short presentations of ideas for discussion
1 h	Lunch
10 min	Group formation and activity presentation
45 min	Group discussion
1 min * demo	Pitch of the demos
30 min	Coffee Break + Demos time
30 min	Group presentation
15 min	Closing of the Workshop

Demos are shown during breaks; 1-minute demo pitches take place prior to the break. Depending on accepted submissions, the number of short-presentation sessions may be adjusted.

How the discussion will be structured

Step 1 — Everyday communication environments

We will analyze the communication channels participants use in work settings, how they use them (e.g., whether they turn on their camera), and how this varies depending on meeting purpose, number of participants, and relationship between them. We will also explore family, friends, and other environments proposed by participants.

Step 2 — People–machine interaction & AI

Building on participants’ ideas, we will discuss how we perceive technology once incorporated into daily life as a communication tool (phones, robots, avatars, etc.), what matters in representation, and the advantages and disadvantages identified. This will ground the discussion on the role of AI in addressing the challenges surfaced.

Keynote

Sergio Cabrero Barros

Keynote Speaker

Title: XR interaction for work and play: eating and thinking together at a distance

Abstract: Despite recent advances and the huge potential of XR for social interaction, the deployment of these technologies remains challenging, whether for work or leisure. This keynote discusses the nuances of XR social interaction across use cases as disparate as a shared gastronomic experience and a collaborative data exploration session. Rooted in these past experiences, we reflect on the technical and social barriers to adoption, and on the new opportunities opened by generative AI entering the immersive space.

Technical Program Committee

Sara Baldoni (University of Padova, Italy)
Matteo Dal Magro (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)
Anna Ferrarotti (Roma Tre University, Italy).
Markus Fiedler (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden)
Marta Goyena (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)
Alan Guedes (University of Reading, United Kingdom)
Tanja Kojic (TU Berlin, Germany)
Mario Montagud (i2CAT & Universitat de València, Spain)
Silvia Rossi (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Netherlands)
Arthur Theil (Birmingham City University, United Kingdom)
Sam Van Damme (Ghent University-imec, Belgium)

Workshop Organizers

Marta Orduna

Nokia XR Lab (Spain) • marta.orduna@nokia.com

PhD on QoE in immersive communications (UPM). Researcher at Nokia XR Lab. Active in ITU-T SG-12 and VQEG-IMG. Experienced organizer/chair across ACM CHI, CSCW, IMX, QoMEX, and MMVE.

Ester González-Sosa

Nokia XR Lab (Spain) • ester.gonzalez@nokia.com

Industrial researcher at Nokia XR Lab applying ML to enhance immersive human communications. Awards include European Biometric Research (2018) and Nokia Ada Lovelace (2022). Organizer of multiple hybrid telepresence workshops.

Jesús Gutiérrez

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) • jesus.gutierrez@upm.es

Associate Professor at the Grupo de Tratamiento de Imágenes (GTI), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). His research focuses on image and video processing, quality of experience evaluation, immersive media technologies, and visual perception. He currently chairs the Immersive Media Group (IMG) of VQEG and serves on the EURASIP Technical Area Committee on Visual Information Processing.

Carlos Cortés

UPM (Spain) • carlos.cs@upm.es

Associate Professor at UPM (Image Processing Group). Research in immersive interactive experience development and evaluation. Demo chair at QoMEX 2025.

Maria Torres-Vega

KU Leuven (Belgium) • maria.torresvega@kuleuven.be

Tenure-track assistant professor. Research on human-driven control/management to enhance perception of immersive systems. Active in QoE community; general chair of QoMEX 2023; awards include CNOM Young Professional (2022) and IEEE ComSoc Rising Star (2023).

Pablo Pérez

Nokia XR Lab (Spain) • pablo.perez@nokia.com

Leads scientific activities at Nokia XR Lab on end-to-end XR for remote/hybrid communication (“Realverse”): networking, systems, algorithms, QoE, and HCI. Nokia delegate in ITU-T SG-12 and VQEG board member; contributor to ITU-T P.1320/P.1321.

Pablo César

CWI (Netherlands) • garcia@cwi.nl

Leads the Distributed and Interactive Systems group at CWI; professor at TU Delft. ACM Distinguished Member, IEEE Senior Member, recipient of the 2020 Netherlands Prize for ICT. Co-organized multiple workshops in social VR, telepresence, and XR interaction.

Contact

For questions, please contact the organizers: marta.orduna@nokia.com · jesus.gutierrez@upm.es

Registration: See ACM IMX 2026 site

Submission: Precision Conference (SIGCHI)

Please refer to official ACM IMX 2026 pages for final venue, registration, and proceedings information.