Body Transformation Experiences: A workshop on How to Elicit, Assess and Support them through Multisensory Technology
This workshop focuses on the theories, approaches, methods, and tools to design multisensory technology that elicit and support Body Transformation Experiences, and on how to best design these for and from a first-person, lived experience.
Examples of devices employed to induce Body Transformation Experiences (BTEs). Papers included in “Selection of Inspirational Readings” section. (a) SoniWeight shoes transform perceived body weight through sound; (b) breathing transformed via thermal feedback; (c) HandMorph alters perceived hand dimensions; (d) Me² enables encounters with one’s child self; (e) vARitouch transforms tactile material properties; (f) Emopal explores emotional connections via brain–muscle interfaces; and (g) movement sonification supports rehabilitation. These examples illustrate the diversity of multisensory approaches within the design space of sensory-driven BTEs
Overview
Over the last 30 years, researchers in HCI, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Interaction Design have shown a growing interest in experiences that engage the moving and sensual body to alter one’s body perception. The way one’s body is perceived is highly plastic and can be altered through multisensory signals and feedback related to the body. Emerging developments in multisensory interfaces open opportunities to enrich, augment, and transform body experiences in the real world through the senses.
This workshop focuses on the theories, approaches, methods, and tools to design multisensory technology that elicits and supports Body Transformation Experiences, and on how to best design these from a first-person, lived experience. We will explore how to elicit and assess multisensory Body Transformation Experiences and showcase concrete examples of supporting them with technology.
Through technology presentations, panel sessions with experts, and multidisciplinary discussions, this workshop aims to:
- bring together researchers creating Body Transformation through sensory technology with those studying experiential effects of sensory-body interactions;
- map current methods, opportunities, and challenges in designing Body Transformation Experiences; and
- envision a road map for this field with future directions by fostering a multidisciplinary community, building collaborations, and inspiring innovative directions for design and research.
Motivation: Why This Workshop
Our bodies ground us in the world, shaping how we sense, move, and experience our surroundings. Research in diverse and complementary disciplines such as psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and somaesthetics agrees that our understanding, perception, and lived experience of the body—our felt bodily sense, awareness, and attunement—is not static, but dynamically shaped through sensory signals and interactions.
From neuroscience we have learned that perceptions of body appearance (such as shape and size), body configuration, location, motor abilities, and bodily sensations can be altered through interactive and multisensory feedback, including visual, auditory, or haptic signals, among others. In these Body Transformation Experiences (BTE), people report perceptual changes leading to unusual or novel experiences of their body with the aid of multisensory technologies. Crucially, these perceptual alterations have been found to profoundly impact cognitive, motor, social, and emotional functioning, as well as aspects of self-identity.
This opens a vast avenue for technological interventions in health and well-being, including eating disorders, physical rehabilitation (e.g., stroke or chronic pain), sports, dance, motor learning and physical activity or inactivity, product design, mental health, interpersonal relations, and the arts. From a somaesthetic and soma-based design perspective, such BTEs are not only measurable perceptual alterations but also opportunities for cultivating richer, more nuanced felt experiences of the lived body. By engaging first-person methods of bodily inquiry and aesthetic appreciation, soma design foregrounds how interactive technologies can sensitively shape awareness, presence, and meaning-making, thereby expanding the transformative potential of BTEs beyond clinical or performance outcomes into everyday life and human flourishing.
In this workshop, we build on our recent CHI workshops related to body and sensorimotor augmentations, extending their focus to designing these experiences that engage technologies and the body, and to assessing their impact on people. Our aim is twofold: to map the emerging design space of BTEs across disciplines; and to envision a roadmap for how such experiences might be designed, studied, and embedded in diverse contexts. These explorations will focus on inducing BTEs through sensory feedback, measuring BTEs and their impacts across various dimensions (behavior, emotion, cognition, etc.), and supporting BTEs through technology.
Workshop Aims and Topics of Interest
This workshop aims to build a community of researchers, designers and practitioners interested in two main areas: designing/creating (multi)sensory BTEs and assessing BTEs (see full workshop submissions for further details). The workshop will foster networking, encourage new collaborations, and expand the design space for multisensory BTEs by integrating research from diverse perspectives.
In the workshop, participants will share experiences, knowledge and insights focusing on how technology can support and enrich BTEs through a mix of hands-on exploration and discussion. We will focus on (i) concrete examples and prototypes, experienced first-hand, and (ii) practical methods for making BTEs visible, measurable, and designable. Our interest includes designs that enable BTEs to be studied and supported outside the lab in natural contexts, as well as methods for designing and collecting in situ data. Concrete examples will serve as provocations to spark reflection and discussion on the current BTE design space and envision how future technologies can shape meaningful bodily experiences. The following questions will guide discussion:
What theories, approaches, methods, and tools emphasize the role of sensory cues in body experiences?
How can sensory signals (e.g., audio, pitch) be used to elicit distinct BTEs?
How do affect and sensory signals interact to elicit distinct BTEs?
How and where can technologies for BTE be worn or integrated in the body?
What relationships do people develop with BTE technologies (e.g., augmentation, extension of self)?
How can BTEs enhance or augment people, including creating novel bodily experiences?
How can BTEs be assessed—through experimental measures and subjective accounts of perception?
What are the challenges and opportunities in designing BTEs that preserve agency, efficacy, and responsibility?
How can BTEs be designed for inclusivity?
What are the challenges of designing BTEs in the wild, their sustainability, and their long-term effects?
In what present and future domains can BTEs be applied (e.g., health, well-being)?
What ethical issues arise when designing and researching BTEs, and which stakeholders need to be involved?
Selection of Inspirational Readings
Here’s a selection of inspirational readings suggested by the organizers. Feel free to read the workshop submission paper (PDF) to find more relevant prior works:
Peyre, I., Roby-Brami, A., Segalen, M., Giron, A., Caramiaux, B., Marchand-Pauvert, V., Pradat-Diehl, P., and Bevilacqua, F. (2023). Effect of sonification types in upper-limb movement: A quantitative and qualitative study in hemiparetic and healthy participants. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 20(1), Article 136. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-023-01248-y | PDF |
Turmo Vidal, L., Vega-Cebrián, J. M., Valdez Gastelum, M. C., Márquez Segura, E., Ley-Flores, J., Díaz Durán, J. R., and Tajadura-Jiménez, A. (2024). Body sensations as design material: An approach to design sensory technology for altering body perception. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2545–2561. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3660701 | PDF |
Turmo Vidal, L., Tajadura-Jiménez, A., Vega-Cebrián, J. M., Ley-Flores, J., Díaz-Durán, J. R., and Márquez Segura, E. (2024). Body transformation: An experiential quality of sensory feedback wearables for altering body perception. Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 25, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3633373 | PDF |
Tajadura-Jiménez, A., Fairhurst, M. T., and Deroy, O. (2022). Sensing the body through sound. In The Routledge Handbook of Bodily Awareness. Taylor & Francis, London, UK, 230–246. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321542 | PDF |
Brooks, J., Amin, N., and Lopes, P. (2023). Taste retargeting via chemical taste modulators. Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 106, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3586183.3606818
| PDF | Video | UIST Talk Video | Code
Workshop Plans, Structure and Activities
Pre-workshop
To take full advantage of the workshop opportunity, we will hold a pre-workshop activity, engaging participants in a one-hour remote session where participants will introduce themselves, share their motivation, and provide a short overview of the work they plan to bring (e.g., a method or prototype; 1-2 minutes per participant).
This pre-workshop activity will take place on Zoom, with the timing arranged in consultation with the participants. Based on these inputs, groups or “stations” will be formed around themes for the main workshop. Materials will be distributed beforehand via email, the website, and shared drives.
Workshop @CHI
This workshop will consist of two 90-minute sessions (with a break) focused on the existing space of BTE research and the future of BTEs. The workshop will include three main activities, with the following schedule:
Session 1 (90 minutes): Mapping the existing space of BTE research
Multisensory warm-up, welcome, and introductions (15 minutes)
Activity 1: Experiencing the prototypes and methods brought by workshop participants (20 minutes)
Activity 2: Mapping the design space for multisensory BTEs, using prototypes, methods, and the workshop’s topics of interest (40 minutes)
General sharing on salient themes (15 minutes)
— Coffee break —
Session 2 (90 minutes): Moving forward – the future of BTEs
Conversation / Provocation: BTEs with invited panellists (20 minutes)
Activity 3: Future next steps of BTEs (30 minutes)
Panel discussion and closing (40 minutes)
These activities will be moderated by the organizers and invited experts, building on participants’ contributions.
In Activity 1, participants will showcase their methods, prototypes, or concepts to kick off the discussion in Activity 2, which focuses on mapping the design space. Together, we will physically annotate the prototypes and methods brought by participants, using the questions in Section 1.4 as prompts. The activity will conclude with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities behind the prototypes and methods.
After the coffee break, experts will lead a moderated dialogue designed to provoke and inspire discussion during Activity 3. The expert panel will include senior organizers and two distinguished invited experts. We are delighted to announce that our confirmed panelists include Kristina Höök and Mel Slater.
Using the provocations as inspiration, participants will revisit the challenges and opportunities identified in Activity 2 to propose future directions for design and research. These will be discussed in a lively panel engaging the panelists, participants, and organizers.
Finally, the organizers will present communication channels established to continue the conversation, post-workshop plans, and opportunities for collaboration.
Post-workshop
After the workshop, we will continue building a multidisciplinary community to study/design BTEs and related technologies, through establishing communication channels (e.g., mailing list, dedicated website, or Discord) to share ideas, foster collaborations, and explore funding opportunities. We also plan to invite participants to contribute to a collaborative research article to be published in a journal or conference paper summarizing the workshop’s themes, outputs, and reflections, mapping current work and outlining future directions.
Call for Participation
This workshop, consisting of two 90-minute sessions, aims to build a community and open the design space for sensory-driven BTEs by integrating research from multiple perspectives. It builds on recent CHI workshops related to body and sensorimotor augmentations, including Body×Materials (CHI ’23), Walking the Future (CHI ’25), and Sensorimotor Devices (CHI ’25).
We invite researchers, practitioners, and designers interested in designing and evaluating sensory-driven Body Transformation Experiences (BTEs) to submit a position contribution including:
- A description of existing work; a conceptual design; a position on the workshop topic
- Something to be showcased at the workshop. This could be, among others: a concept; a prototype; or a method.
- Two discussion points (inspiration in the workshop goals) participants would like to explore during the event.
Submissions will be non-anonymized, and they can be individual or collective.
If accepted, at least one author must attend the pre-workshop activity, register, and participate in the in-person CHI 2026 workshop, and bring and showcase their contribution (concept, prototype, method).
All accepted submissions will be published on the website and as workshop proceedings.
Submission format: a 4 page PDF (including references) using the single-column SIGCHI template. Alternate submission formats such as slides, design sketches, videos, or posters of commensurate length are also welcome. Authors must follow the SIGCHI Accessibility Guidelines to ensure accessibility.
Due date: Submissions are due February 12, 2026
Due date: Submissions are due February 19, 2026
Submission procedure: Submissions will entail a pre-questionnaire including demographic questions that will be used by organizers to ensure diversity in the workshop https://forms.gle/o8iiGQmXVrP9RDdb6
Position contributions will be submitted via email to emarquez@inf.uc3m.es using the subject: “CHI 2026 Workshop: BTEs”
Read the full submission paper here.
Accepted submissions
In this section, we will publish a collection of the submitted papers.
Diversity and Accessibility
The organizers are committed to the inclusion of participants across abilities, gender, ethnicity, location, institution, seniority, and research background. Participants will be asked to make workshop submissions fully accessible and include alt-text image descriptions. We will attempt to provide live closed captions for presentations for any participants who may need them. Volunteers will also be present at the workshop to facilitate group work and interactions.
Organizers
The organizing team represents the multidisciplinary and international scope of the workshop. Collectively, they bring expertise in multisensory and embodied experiences and technologies, traditional and innovative design processes, methods, and tools, affective computing, and real-life contexts. They have served on conference program committees, published extensively in top-tier conferences (e.g., CHI, IDC, DIS, UIST) and journals (e.g., HCI, TOCHI), special issues and books. They have organized related workshops and SIGs at CHI, as well as hands-on workshops at other haptics and HCI conferences such as NordiCHI, DIS, IDC, CHIPlay, TEI, IEEE World Haptics, UIST —attesting to the interest in this topic in the CHI community. Most, if not all, organizers will attend CHI’26 and support on-site preparations if the workshop is accepted.
Ana Tajadura-Jiménez (main contact) is an Associate Professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). She leads the i_mBODY lab (imbodylab.com), at the intersection of HCI, neuroscience, and AI. She is Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded BODYinTRANSIT project and the SENSEBEAT-DS project, both focused on multisensory technologies that alter body perception and drive changes in emotion, behavior, and health.
Elena Márquez Segura is a design researcher in the i_mBODY lab at UC3M. Her work focuses on designing and studying playful, technology-supported experiences for collocated physical and social action, and on embodied design methods that facilitate their design. Currently, she works with wearables and immersive technologies in health and well-being contexts, especially physical training and rehabilitation.
Laia Turmo Vidal is an interaction design researcher and postdoc at KTH Royal Institute of Technology developing body-centric and critical approaches to design for health and well-being. Her work explores how interactive technologies (such as biofeedback devices, soft haptic wearables, and interactive machine learning tools) can positively transform body experiences in contexts of physical activity, rehabilitation, and chronic conditions.
Marte Roel is an interdisciplinary practitioner focused on bodily experience, empathy, and compassion. His academic work spans psychology, behavioral science, and cognitive neuroscience. He is currently affiliated with the i_mBODY lab at UC3M and the Psychology Department of the University of Zurich. Marte is co-founder of BeAnotherLab and the Association for Independent Research.
Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze is a Full Professor in Affective Computing and Interaction at the UCL Interaction Centre. Part of her research focuses on how full-body technology and body sensory feedback can modulate people’s perception of themselves and their capabilities to improve self-efficacy and coping abilities.
Aneesha Singh is a Full Professor in HCI and Digital Health at the University College London Interaction Centre. She investigates the design, adoption, and use of personal health and well-being technologies in everyday contexts, with a focus on sensitive and stigmatized conditions.
Frédéric Bevilacqua is Head Researcher at IRCAM in Paris, leading the Sound Music Movement Interaction team within the STMS lab (IRCAM–CNRS–Sorbonne Université). His research concerns the modeling and design of human movement–sound interactions and the development of gesture-based musical interfaces. Applications of his work range from artistic creation and education to health.
Alice Haynes is a postdoctoral research fellow in Interaction Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. She focuses on designing body-centered haptic and shape-changing interfaces for well-being and interpersonal connection. She has recently begun using soma design and first-person methods to transform her relationship with her body, exploring specific bodily experiences such as scoliosis and body asymmetry.
Don Samitha Elvitigala is a Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Centred Computing at Monash University. His research focuses on developing novel on-body interfaces that enhance human capabilities by implicitly understanding physical and mental behaviors. In particular, he explores how everyday clothes and accessories can be leveraged to develop human augmentations.
Jun Nishida is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, leading the Embodied Dynamics Laboratory (emd.cs.umd.edu). He explores the dynamics of human embodied experiences—how our bodies, perceptions, and somatic interactions contribute to physical skills, knowledge, subjectivity, and behavior—through the design and engineering of new on-body somatic interfaces.
Pedro Lopes is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, Director of the Human Computer Integration Lab (lab.plopes.org). His work focuses on integrating interfaces with the human body—exploring interface paradigms that supersede wearables. These devices augment the body not only cognitively but also physically.
Paul Strohmeier is a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPI-INF), where he leads the Sensorimotor Interaction group, and an Associate Fellow of Saarland University. His PhD work received the SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award. He has also received an ERC Starting Grant for research on kinesthetic perception, sensory augmentation, and on-body systems.
Speakers
Kristina Höök is a Professor in Interaction Design at the Royal Institute of Technology KTH in Stockholm. She works on soma design – a feminist, non-dualistic, somaesthetic design approach. Soma design is an approach to interaction design that starts from bodily sensations, using somatic (body-focused) practices to guide the creation of technologies and experiences. It emphasizes cultivating sensitivity to movement, perception, and emotion so designers can shape more meaningful, aesthetic and ethical interactions.
Mel Slater is a Distinguished Investigator at the University of Barcelona in the Institute of Neurosciences, and co-Director of the Event Lab. He has been involved in research in virtual reality since the early 1990s and his work has concentrated on both technical developments in VR and contributions to the understanding of presence and the cognitive neuroscience of body ownership and agency. He is a co-Founder of Kiin.tech, and coordinator of the European Metaverse Research Network, with a long-standing commitment to advancing interdisciplinary VR research.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant agreement ID 101165100 for Paul Strohmeier, and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme via ERC grant agreement No. 101002711 for Ana Tajadura-Jiménez. Further funding for Ana Tajadura-Jiménez is provided by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union (Project grant PID2023-150259OB-C21). Laia Turmo Vidal and Alice Haynes are funded by postdoctoral grants from Digital Futures, Sweden. Frédéric Bevilacqua acknowledges financial support from the CNRS through the MITI interdisciplinary programs.
Marte Roel Lesur has received funding from the BIAL Foundation (335/2024) and the Digitalization Initiative of the Zurich Higher Education Institutions (DIZH, 2022.1_PC_ID23).
