Motivation

In our prior work “Walk the Line” (CHI 2020), we demonstrated that subtle lateral shifts of the walking path can be leveraged as an intuitive and hands-free input modality in XR. But walking is more than side-to-side movement. What if we could use gait parameters—step width, length, foot angle, or rhythm—as rich, expressive inputs for interacting with digital systems?

This thesis explores how modifying different components of human gait can be used to control and communicate with interactive systems—turning walking into a full-body interface for XR, AR, and wearable tech.

You will:

• Investigate when and how AR content occludes or distracts in mobile scenarios.
• Design and prototype adaptive algorithms for automatic positioning of AR elements.
• Explore how positioning strategies can be tuned in real time (e.g., head-, world-, or environment-anchored placement).
• Conduct a controlled user studiy to evaluate the impact on user performance, awareness, and workload.

You need:

• Good programming skills (Unity is a plus)
• Curiosity for embodied interaction and unusual ways of interacting withtechnology
• Motivation to work independently on a creative and technically challenging project