On 14 and 15 September 2026, the European PRESENCE project was represented at FARETE in Bologna (Bologna Congress Center) with a dedicated stand, bringing together several project partners. imec-SMIT, one of the partners in the PRESENCE consortium, participated in the event to support the project’s user research and evaluation activities.
Two XR Applications on Display
At the PRESENCE stand, visitors could discover and test two XR applications developed within the project, focusing on Professional Collaboration and Manufacturing Training. The stand combined a demonstration and testing area with a dedicated space for interviews, allowing visitors to first experience one of the applications and then share their feedback with the PRESENCE team. Depending on their professional background and interests, visitors could choose the application most relevant to them.
The Professional Collaboration experience explores how XR can support remote collaboration in a shared virtual environment, while the Manufacturing Training experience investigates how immersive technologies can support learning and practising industrial procedures. Both incorporate technologies explored within PRESENCE, including haptics, holoportation and intelligent virtual humans.
Gathering User Feedback
Following the experience, participants were invited to take part in an interview. The activities targeted operational users, user decision-makers and business developers, enabling the PRESENCE team to gather insights from different professional perspectives.
As part of imec-SMIT’s contribution to PRESENCE, the interviews explored participants’ first impressions and requirements, as well as potential barriers to implementation and ethical considerations such as privacy, safety, accessibility and user control. Other questions addressed the business and adoption perspective, including integration into existing workflows, training, hardware, costs and business models.
Looking Ahead: Validating PRESENCE in Its Final Stages
As PRESENCE enters the later stages of the project, which runs until April 2027, the activities at FARETE formed part of its ongoing validation efforts with professional users. Building on insights gathered throughout previous testing and development iterations, the aim was to assess whether the applications address the key needs and requirements of their intended users and to identify any remaining gaps. The feedback collected at FARETE will help determine whether important requirements, ethical considerations or adoption barriers still need to be addressed as the project moves towards its final stages.