Many Lenses, One World:
Culturally-Aware Interactive Al in Metaverse
Culturally-Aware Interactive Al in Metaverse
Feb. 12, 2026: Official MLOW website opened.
Satellite Workshop paper submission due date: May 13, 2026
Satellite Workshop paper acceptance notification: June 10, 2026
Satellite Workshop camera-ready due date: July 1, 2026
Satellite Workshop author registration due date: July 16, 2026
Satellite Workshop date: Sep. 13, 2026, 09:00 AM - 13:00 PM (in ICIP 2026, Tampere, Finland)
Workshop registration will be handled by ICIP 2026 main conference committee. Please follow ICIP 2026 website for related information.
All inquiries should be sent via e-mail to workshops@2026.ieeeicip.org
MLOW focuses on interactive metaverse systems that can perceive, communicate, and act within 3D/4D environments. Building such systems requires not only the technical foundations of AI and computer vision but also a deep consideration of the human-centric dimensions shaped by culture, affect, and artistic expression. MLOW provides an interdisciplinary venue where these perspectives converge—bringing together researchers to explore how interactive AI can operate meaningfully within immersive, socially and culturally grounded metaverse spaces.
More specifically, MLOW integrates two complementary dimensions:
(1) Technical Foundations for Interactive Metaverse AI — core advances in multimodal VLM/LLM grounding, 3D/4D perception, neural rendering, dynamic scene understanding, and embodied AI operating across visual, linguistic, and spatial modalities;
(2) Human & Cultural Dimensions of Metaverse Interaction — perspectives that examine how AI systems relate to cultural context, diversity, affect, creativity, and artistic expression, highlighted through our Art+AI demo track and cross-cultural interaction studies.
MLOW invites researchers, practitioners, and creators to share technical advances, human-centered insights, and creative explorations that push the boundaries of interactive AI in the metaverse. The workshop will feature keynote/invited talks by leading experts working across image processing, 3D/4D vision, and large-scale language/vision models. Participants will have opportunities to have an oral presentation, to engage in in-depth discussions to explore potential research collaborations. In addition to technical sessions, MLOW will host an Art+AI demo and exhibition track, highlighting creative, affective, and culturally grounded metaverse experiences that complement the workshop’s interdisciplinary focus.
MLOW welcomes submissions on topics including, but not limited to:
Multimodal VLM/LLM grounding and cross-modal reasoning
3D/4D perception, neural rendering, novel view synthesis, dynamic scene understanding
Interactive/embodied/agentic AI for metaverse environments
Evaluation protocols, simulation-to-reality transfer, and user-centered interaction design
Cultural context modeling, affective computing, and socially aware AI
AI for cultural heritage, creative tools, and artistic or narrative metaverse applications
Art+AI demos, interactive installations, and cross-cultural metaverse experiences
Guidelines for Paper Submission
Submissions must follow the ICPR 2026 template.
Minimum length: 2 pages (double-column), excluding references.
There is no strict maximum length, but conciseness is encouraged.
Reviews will be rolling.
Guidelines for Art+AI Demo and Works Submission
In addition to paper submissions, MLOW invites Art+AI demos and interactive works that explore creative, affective, or culturally grounded dimensions of metaverse experiences. We particularly welcome projects that demonstrate how interactive AI systems can support, augment, or reinterpret human expression within immersive or semi-immersive environments.
Scope and Suitable Formats
We encourage screen-based and small-scale interactive works that can be presented within typical work- shop venue constraints. Due to on-site limitations, large physical installations or works requiring extensive spatial setups may not be feasible. Final requirements (hardware, space, power, etc) will be coordinated with the ICPR organizing committee. Suitable formats include:
Screen-based or monitor-displayed interactive pieces
Real-time or pre-rendered metaverse environments
AI-driven creative tools, generative media systems, or narrative experiences
Small-scale installations involving visual, auditory, or multimodal interaction
Submission Format
All demo/art submissions must be uploaded through the workshop’s paper submission platform as a concise 2-page description (ICPR 2026 template). The document should outline:
The concept, motivation, and artistic or interactive goals
The underlying technical components (AI/CV/HCI methods)
Interaction design and intended user experience
On-site requirements (hardware, display, audio, networking)
Supplementary Materials (optional, but highly recommended)
To help reviewers and organizers better understand the work, authors are encouraged to provide supplementary materials, such as a short video or illustrative images demonstrating the interaction or experience. Accessible online demos or repositories are also welcome. Supplementary materials will be collected via email after the 2-page PDF description is submitted to the official submission platform. Detailed instructions for email submission will be provided upon receipt of the initial submission.
Keynote Speaker: Victoria Vesna
Professor @ UCLA Design | Media Arts; Director, Art|Sci Center
Bio.: Victoria Vesna is a media artist and professor at UCLA whose work bridges art, science, and technology. As Director of the Art|Sci Center, she leads cross-disciplinary projects exploring data, sound, and immersive media to foster public engagement with emerging technologies and their cultural impact.
Title: Culture-Aware AI Arts: Dialogues Between Data, Bodies, and Metaverse Spaces
Abstract: This talk surveys three decades of art–science collaborations that use databases, telepresence, and AR/VR installations to craft culturally aware experiences. I will show how artistic practice can reveal hidden biases in datasets and models, stage consent-aware pipelines for generative media, and create participatory works where audiences co-produce meaning with AI. Case studies from the Art|Sci Center highlight curatorial strategies, provenance/watermarking, and community-based evaluation that make metaverse artworks respectful and sustainable. The goal is to outline practical methods that help AI “see one world through many lenses” while remaining accountable to people and places.
Invited Talk 1: Haley Marks
Project Scientist @ California NanoSystems Institute (UCLA)
Bio.: Haley L. Marks is a Project Scientist at the California NanoSystems Institute (UCLA), working with the Advanced Light Microscopy & Spectroscopy program. Her work focuses on quantitative imaging pipelines that combine fluorescence, Raman, and hyperspectral microscopy with controlled illumination and calibration. She collaborates with researchers, museums, and cultural institutions to translate lab-grade measurement methods into practical digitization workflows, supporting trustworthy metadata for description, retrieval, and generative AI applications.
Title: Spectral & Microscopy-Driven Pipelines for Trustworthy Digitization of Cultural Artifacts
Abstract: We present practical imaging workflows that combine fluorescence, Raman, and spectral microscopy with controlled photometric capture to digitize cultural artifacts with faithful color, texture, and condition metadata. These measurements feed multimodal models (VLM/LLM) to improve grounding for description, retrieval, and generation while reducing cultural bias. The talk outlines illumination control, calibration, and validation protocols, and shows how lab-grade instruments can be translated into accessible kits for museums and community archives.
Invited Talk 2: Ziyu Wan
Member of Technical Staff @ Microsoft AI
Bio.: Ziyu Wan works on photorealistic visual reconstruction and generation at Microsoft AI. His recent projects span diffusion-based image/video generation, view-consistent reconstruction, and editing with geometry/appearance control. He is broadly interested in bridging reconstruction and generation so that models can recover faithful 3D/4D structure while remaining controllable and efficient for real applications.
Title: Towards Photorealistic Visual Reconstruction and Generation
Abstract: This talk overviews recent methods that unify reconstruction and generation for photorealistic results. We begin with geometry-aware priors and camera-consistent conditioning that preserve structure across views and time. Building on these, diffusion models are adapted with scene representations (depth/normal/feature fields) and lightweight controllers for text, masks, and layout, enabling faithful novel-view synthesis and editable outputs. I will discuss strategies for temporal and multi-view consistency, reducing artifacts such as flicker and texture drift, and improving efficiency with distillation and hybrid rasterization/denoising pipelines. Finally, I will show demos that connect these techniques to interactive editing and metaverse scenarios, where users can reconstruct, relight, and modify dynamic scenes while keeping realism and identity.
Invited Talk 3: JungHyuk Im
CEO @ Innerverz
Bio.: JungHyuk Im is the CEO of Innerverz, where he leads R&D and production pipelines that integrate generative AI with modern animation and virtual-production workflows. His team focuses on data-driven asset creation, character and motion generation, and real-time toolchains that bridge pre-production, layout, and post. He works closely with artists and engineers to translate research advances into scalable studio practices, emphasizing creative control, consistency, and rights-respecting content management across projects.
Title: AI-Driven Animation
Abstract: This talk presents recent advances in integrating generative AI into real-time animation and virtual production workflows for interactive environments. We introduce AI-driven pipelines for character, motion, and scene asset generation that enable controllable and scalable content creation across pre-production and post-production stages. By combining multimodal generative models with layout-aware animation systems, these workflows allow artists and engineers to collaboratively construct dynamic digital characters and environments that remain editable throughout the production cycle. The talk further discusses how data-centric animation systems can support interactive storytelling and embodied agents in immersive 3D and 4D metaverse spaces. Finally, we highlight the importance of creative control, stylistic consistency, and rights-aware content management in deploying generative animation tools for culturally grounded interactive media applications.
Invited Talk 4: Marcos V. Conde
Ph.D. @ University of Würzburg
Bio.: Marcos V. Conde obtained Ph.D. degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision at the University of Würzburg, advised by Prof. Radu Timofte. He is also Kaggle Grandmaster at H2O.ai. Since 2024, he is Chief Scientific Advisor at Fundación CIDAUT in Spain, working on cameras and robots with a brilliant team of students. During his PhD (2022-2025), he was Computer Vision Scientist at Sony PlayStation, working on Graphics, Super-Resolution (like DLSS), and Streaming. During 2020-21, he was Research Intern at Huawei Noah’s Ark Lab (London), and received the best intern award for my work on neural ISPs and RAW processing supervised by Dr. Eduardo Pérez-Pellitero, while undergrad.
Title: Controllable Neural Photography
Abstract: This talk explores recent developments in controllable neural photography for interactive visual reconstruction and generation in immersive environments. We introduce methods that integrate neural image signal processing, computational photography, and learning-based rendering to recover geometry, appearance, and photometric consistency from sparse or degraded observations. By enabling fine-grained control over lighting, viewpoint, and scene attributes, these techniques support real-time editing and faithful novel-view synthesis across space and time. The talk further discusses how controllable reconstruction pipelines can serve as foundational components for interactive metaverse systems, allowing users to capture, relight, and modify dynamic scenes while preserving realism and identity. Finally, we examine how these approaches contribute to multimodal 2D to 4D perception and generation, bridging low-level imaging with agentic visual interaction in culturally-aware immersive applications.
Assistant Prof. @ Chung-Ang Univ., CAIO @ inshorts
Email: jihyongoh@cau.ac.kr
Prof. @ UCLA, Director @ Art|Sci Center
Research Scientist @ Flawless Al
Email: juanluisgb.phd@gmail.com
CEO @ Innerverz
Email: bigticket@innerverz.com
Research Fellow @ NUS
Email: zeyuxiao@nus.edu.sg
Ph.D. @ University of Würzburg
Member of Technical Staff @ Microsoft AI
Email: raywzy@gmail.com
Assistant Prof. @ Chung-Ang Univ.
Email: hyeokjunkweon@cau.ac.kr
Professor @ Syracuse Univ., DAC Committee Chair @ SIGGRAPH
Email: rebecca.xu@gmail.com
Research Fellow @ NTU
Email: ruizhao26@gmail.com
Assistant Prof. @ Chung-Ang Univ.
Email: hakgukim@cau.ac.kr
Media Art Writer, Scholar and Curator, Professor @ University of Lodz
Project Scientist @ UCLA
Email: hmarks@cnsi.ucla.edu
MLOW brings together voices from academia, industry, and cultural institutions across regions and career stages. We aim for balanced representation in organizers, speakers, and authors; offer student-friendly participation; and encourage contributions from historically under-represented communities. A clear code of conduct and accessibility notes will be provided.
Social: Democratizing access to cultural heritage and fostering respectful cross-cultural exchange in metaverse settings.
Ethical: Privacy-preserving and consent-aware pipelines; IP/watermarking practices; bias and safety evaluation for multimodal, 2D–4D, and generative systems.
Industrial: Collaboration with creative and tech partners on reproducible benchmarks, API/tool usability, and deployment guidelines for culturally-aware interactive AI.
By uniting researchers, practitioners, and artists, MLOW advances culturally-aware interactive AI that benefits education, creative industries, and digital cultural heritage. We will release challenge resources and evaluation protocols that promote fair, privacy-respecting, and safe innovation—helping future systems “see one world through many lenses.”