Advances in extended reality (XR) systems and body-worn technologies are rapidly transforming how humans are sensed, interpreted, and assisted in everyday contexts. Modern XR platforms can capture rich information about head and body movement, eye gaze, voice, and even cognitive load, while simultaneously presenting multisensory feedback that seamlessly integrates with their surrounding environment. In parallel, smart glasses, watches, and rings are evolving to provide continuous, unobtrusive monitoring of physiological and behavioral states. Together, these developments suggest an imminent convergence of technologies capable of perceiving what users are doing and feeling, understanding their situational context, and providing adaptive interventions in real time.

Yet current research communities have largely addressed these elements in isolation: perception in XR, affective computing, digital phenotyping, wearable biofeedback, and adaptive human–computer interaction. What is missing is a holistic vision that unites these domains to chart pathways toward systems that do more than aggregate existing capabilities – systems that genuinely extend human abilities, augment cognition, and provide support across health, work, education, and accessibility.

In this Dagstuhl Seminar, we aim to bring together researchers and practitioners from computer science, psychology, cognitive science, human–computer interaction, and assistive technology with expertise in areas such as multimodal sensing, computational modeling, biofeedback, cognitive augmentation, and adaptive human–AI systems. Together, participants will address pressing research questions such as:

• How can we integrate heterogeneous sensor streams to robustly infer user state and context?
• What frameworks ensure adaptive interventions support human agency while avoiding over-reliance or harm?
• How can XR-based systems be designed to augment cognition, attention, and decision-making in real-world settings?
• Which ethical, social, and privacy safeguards are necessary for systems that continuously monitor and influence human behavior?

By assembling diverse perspectives – from sensing and modeling to human factors and ethics – this Dagstuhl Seminar is expected to articulate a unified research agenda for "Beyond XR" – technologies that seamlessly observe, interpret, and assist humans in context-aware and adaptive ways.

Creative Commons BY 4.0

Gregory F. Welch, Jeanine Stefanucci, Misha Sra, and Frank Steinicke