IEEE VR 2026 Workshop on Extended Reality for the Operating Room (XR4OR)

Overview

This workshop focuses on how Extended Reality (XR) — whether for specific surgical tasks or for enhancing overall operating-room (OR) workflows and patient management — can directly improve surgical success and patient safety. Although XR technologies have made substantial progress in recent years, their full potential during surgery remains underexplored. The workshop will also include a section for ideation of novel use cases and research questions.

The overarching goal of any kind of technology in the operating room is to increase the success rate of operations and enhance patient safety. While XR has advanced a lot over the past decade and holds great promise for direct use in the operating room (OR), its potential has yet to be fully investigated. We believe that by making use of this technology *during* operations, ultimately, patients' well-being and other kinds of success metrics of operations can be improved.

With this workshop, we hope to bring together researchers from all sub-fields of XR (VR, AR, sound and haptic rendering, new materials, etc.); also, we invite researchers investigating AI to enhance surgical procedures and OR workflows. We aim to build a community around the emerging topic of ``Using Extended Reality Technologies in the Operating Room''.

This workshop is designed for researchers, practitioners, and professionals in the fields of XR aiming to utilize this technology in the OR. It is also suitable for those who are interested in advancing their understanding of the potentials of XR for improving surgical procedures. We welcome all individuals who are enthusiastic about exploring and advancing the use of XR in the OR. Expert knowledge of XR technologies and a profound understanding of surgical procedures is not mandatory.

While Extended Reality (XR)—encompassing Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)—has advanced significantly, its potential for direct use during surgical interventions is still underexplored. This workshop aims to survey existing uses and foster novel research ideas for leveraging XR during surgery to improve patient well-being.

We invite researchers from all sub-fields of XR (VR, AR, haptics, etc.) and AI to submit their work.

Topics & Focus

We invite submissions addressing technical and human factors challenges that must be solved in order to use XR in the OR.

Core Challenges

Minimizing cognitive load and distractions.
Seamless team interaction.
Precise, fail-safe hand-eye coordination.
Sterile, hands-free interaction.
Handling extreme dynamic lighting (bright to dim).
Automatic surgical activity recognition.

Submission Topics (Non-Exhaustive)

High-precision OR tracking methods.
Distraction-free HCI techniques.
Intraoperative visualization (e.g., see-through HMDs, "X-ray vision").
Remote consultation, telementoring, and proctoring.
XR for minimally invasive and robotic surgery.
Real-time interactive simulations and on-the-spot planning.
Spatial AR and projection systems.
Novel displays (e.g., auto-stereoscopic) and materials.
3D printing for the OR.
AI for real-time surgical data analysis.
AI-driven image segmentation and registration.

A prior workshop was held as a Dagstuhl Seminar

Program

Paper Session: 8:30 - 10:00

Paper Title	Authors	Affiliation
Toward Intelligent Intraoperative Guidance in Temporal Bone Surgery	Sudanthi Wijewickrema Phu Lai Jean-Marc Gerard	Australian Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Innovation, La Trobe University, Australia La Trobe University, Australia Dept. of otolaryngology, University of Melbourne, Australia
Towards EMG-Driven Pseudo-Haptic Feedback for VR Surgical Training	Wei Lan Danyang Peng Zicheng Xia Tobias Langlotz Stefanie Zollmann Kai Kunze	Keio University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan Keio University, Keio University Graduate School of Media Design, Yokohama, Japan Keio University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Computer Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Keio University Graduate School of Media Design, Yokohama, Japan
Exploring Augmented Reality Visualizations for Communicating Robot Intent in Robotic Ultrasound	Josefine Schreiter Minh Hoang Tan Robert Klank Christian Hansen Fabian Joeres	Dept. of Simulation and Graphics, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany Dept. of Simulation and Graphics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany Dept. of Simulation and Graphics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany Dept. of Simulation and Graphics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany Dept. of Simulation and Graphics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany
Towards Sterile Interaction with Medical Devices in the Operating Room using Extended Reality	Dr. rer. nat. Verena Uslar Hanno Tammen Tim Schneider Merle Schlender Dirk Weyhe	University Hospital for Visceral Surgery, Oldenburg, Germany University Hospital for Visceral Surgery, Oldenburg, Germany University Hospital for Visceral Surgery, Oldenburg, Germany University Hospital for Visceral Surgery, Oldenburg, Germany University Hospital for Visceral Surgery, Oldenburg, Germany
A Cloud-Based Multi-User Immersive Teleoperation Framework for Robotic Surgery	Mohamad Shaaban Nicola Piccinelli Prof Riccardo Muradore Jesus Ortiz Veronica Penza Nikhil Deshpande Darwin Caldwell Leonardo de Mattos Yonas Teodros Tefera	Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy Dept. of Engineering for Innovation Medicine, University of Verona, Italy Dept. of Engineering for Innovation Medicine, University of Verona, Italy Advanced Robotics Dept., Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, GENOVA, Italy University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy Istituto italiano di technologia, genova, Italy Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
First steps toward an Extended Reality framework for interactive exploration of surgically induced lung collapse and tumor displacement	Domenico Riggio Laura Lichtlein Johannes Pfeil Corrado Pelaia Prof. Paolo Zaffino Maria Francesca Spadea	Inst. of Biomedical Engineering, Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology, Germany Inst. of Biomedical Engineering, Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology, Germany Inst. of Biomedical Engineering, Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology, Germany Dept. of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Italy Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Italy Inst. of Biomedical Engineering, Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology, Germany
Bronchoscopy as a Spatial Reasoning Problem: A Position on XR and AI as Cognitive Infrastructure in the Operating Room	Ezequiel R Zorzal Dr Catarina Moreira Joaquim Jorge	Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil Data Science Inst., University of Technology Sydney, Australia INESC-ID/Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Learning Surgical Skills by Imitation: A Work-in-Progress XR Method Using Expert Hand Trajectories	Pooja Chandrakant Salunke	Digital Health Lab, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
An Immersive Interface for Colonoscopy Training	Luciana Nedel Max Chaves Barn Eduardo Machado Behling Bruno Martins Alexandre Prof. Rafael Torchelsen Prof. Anderson Maciel	AKCIT Lab, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil AKCIT Lab, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Pelotas, Brazil AKCIT Lab, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil CDTec, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil AKCIT Lab, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Note that each paper will probably have 10 min for presentation, including Q&A.

Coffee Break: 10:00 - 10:30

Interactive Session: 10:30 - 12:30

Part	Activity	Approx. duration
Introduction	Familiarize with procedure	10 min
"1 idea/1 question"	Every participant puts forth one idea or one question	20 min
Refine idea/question	Participants explain idea/question to each other	20 min
Presentation	Each pair presents one of the two ideas they worked on	20 min
Wrap up	Next steps	5 min

Submission Instructions

Authors are invited to submit Research Papers detailing their work, Position Papers describing specific challenges and potential solutions, or Work-in-Progress papers.. Please select one of the two tracks below.

Paper Specifications

Research Paper: 4-6 pages + up to 2 pages for references.
Work-in-Progress Paper: 2-4 pages + up to 1 page for references.
Position Paper: 1-2 pages + up to 1 page for references.

Track 1: Archival

Submissions accepted to this track will be published in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

Requirement: Papers must be original research and not published elsewhere.

Here is the full Call for Papers of phase 1 (archival track)

Track 2: Non-Archival

Submissions accepted to this track will not have a corresponding publication in the digital library.

Flexibility: Non-archival submissions can be published elsewhere as-is.

The full Call for Papers of phase 2 (non-archival track),

Submission Requirements

Authors must register and present at the workshop.

Presentation Format Declaration:

Upon submission, authors must self-declare their preferred format for the workshop:

Presentation: A standard oral presentation of the work.
Demo: A live demonstration of the system/technology.

Guidelines

Papers should use the IEEE VR formatting guidelines.
Please anonymize your submissions.
Submit through the IEEE VR 2026 Precision Conference System (PCS): https://new.precisionconference.com/. New submissions should now go into the second, non-archival track. So, on the submission page, you can make a new submission by selecting "VR" in Society, "IEEE VR 2026" in Conference/Journal, and "IEEE VR 2026 Workshop: XR4OR non-archival submissions" in Track, then click "Go."

Event	Archival Track	Non-Archival Track
Submission Deadline	January 16	February 6, or Feb 20
Notification of Acceptance	January 22	February 12, or Feb 27
Camera-Ready Deadline	January 29	February 20
Workshop Date	March 22, 8:30 - 12:30 (KST) (tea break 10:00-10:30)

Workshop at IEEE Virtual Reality 2026

Extended Reality for the Operating Room (XR4OR)