Conducted research for Master’s Thesis, Spatial Humans, a realistic telepresence system, by translating HCI principles and Design Thinking frameworks for Augmented Reality, a state-of-the-art approach in this industry.

Applied rigorous design research processes with 12 users, including building empathy and conducting semi-structured user interviews, to co-create 2 user journey maps. This resulted in a deep understanding of their needs and a clear design specification with 4 targets which addressed ethical issues of privacy and authenticity.

Developed 6 low-fidelity prototypes to enable testing of each information architecture component, synthesising insights to iterate to 2 high-fidelity, photo-realistic avatars.

Introduced a simplified full-body avatar creation process using advanced 3D design methods such as photogrammetry and mesh topology, successfully balancing fidelity and commercial viability, reducing production hardware cost by approximately 98%.

Investigated sensor-based and AI-driven full-body motion capture and developed a prototype in Unity for Meta Quest, resulting in highly usable tracking that is accurate in 87.5% of configurations.

Successfully benchmarked and evaluated the prototype by conducting a mixed-methods feasibility study with 8 users using industry-standard questionnaires.

Results displayed improved usability at 7% above benchmark, a statistically significant improvement in social presence and high engagement with a Net Promoter Score of 63.