Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
"E.A.T.: Towards Understanding the Design of Social XR Restaurant Experiences for Diners With and Without Headsets" at DIS 2026.
Dining is a social activity, yet human–computer interaction (HCI) research has rarely examined how extended reality (XR) headsets shape shared restaurant experiences. Although XR can augment taste perception, headsets also obscure facial expressions– particularly pertinent when only some diners wear them. We identify an opportunity to make a wearer’s biodata socially visible via an outward-facing display on the headset to facilitate novel social dining experiences with XR. To explore this, we designed E.A.T. (Expressive Augmented Togetherness), a novel XR dining system that combines food augmentation with external displays depicting physiological arousal and pupil movement to facilitate social interactions. Through interviews following a restaurant field study with five groups of three diners, we examined how the system influenced taste perception and social interactions. We identify six design considerations for socially legible XR systems for dining, ultimately, aiming to inform how HCI can better support social dining experiences.
exertiongameslab.org
"E.A.T.: Towards Understanding the Design of Social XR Restaurant Experiences for Diners With and Without Headsets" at DIS 2026.
Dining is a social activity, yet human–computer interaction (HCI) research has rarely examined how extended reality (XR) headsets shape shared restaurant experiences. Although XR can augment taste perception, headsets also obscure facial expressions– particularly pertinent when only some diners wear them. We identify an opportunity to make a wearer’s biodata socially visible via an outward-facing display on the headset to facilitate novel social dining experiences with XR. To explore this, we designed E.A.T. (Expressive Augmented Togetherness), a novel XR dining system that combines food augmentation with external displays depicting physiological arousal and pupil movement to facilitate social interactions. Through interviews following a restaurant field study with five groups of three diners, we examined how the system influenced taste perception and social interactions. We identify six design considerations for socially legible XR systems for dining, ultimately, aiming to inform how HCI can better support social dining experiences.
exertiongameslab.org
