ARVI: Hybrid Spatial Computing for Information Work

Internally funded project (Teaching Seed Fund + School Business Case, £5,500 total) developing a physical marker-based system that projects data visualisations onto workspace surfaces. An Apple Vision Pro adds a personal computational layer on top of the shared projection, enabling research into how professionals coordinate across shared and private information spaces — moving beyond the screen-based interfaces that have dominated for decades.

Imagine analysing data not on a laptop screen, but projected across your entire desk — moving physical objects to control charts and visualisations, like a sci-fi film. Now add an Apple Vision Pro headset so each person around the table also has their own private layer of information visible only to them, while still sharing the same projected workspace. This project builds and studies that kind of environment, asking whether it could genuinely change how people work with information — and whether spatial computing can evolve from a novelty into a serious professional tool.