I’m an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. My research in human-computer interaction focuses on AR/VR and spatial computing. I lead Princeton’s Situated Interactions Lab (Ψ Lab) as part of the Princeton HCI Group.

Prior to joining Princeton, I was a visiting research scientist at Meta Reality Labs Research. I received my doctoral degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, working with James Landay and Sean Follmer. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Toronto’s Engineering Science program.

 

Research Themes

Wearable devices take the notion of a “display” from 2D screens to digital information that can be presented at any time, through different sensory channels (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile), and within its real-world context. At Ψ Lab, we build novel wearable interactive technologies that extend our abilities and augment our intelligence situated in the physical world. To this end, we study and draw on our understanding of human perception and cognition, focusing on movement and space.

Our research follows 3 general themes:

Input on-the-go

  • Low-effort
  • Multimodal
  • Privacy-preserving

Intelligent output

  • Multisensory
  • Minimal
  • Timely

Situated AI interactions

  • Personalizable
  • Predictable
  • Safe

 
 

SELected Publications

Designing Haptic Feedback for Sequential Gestural Inputs

Shan Xu, Sarah Sykes, Parastoo Abtahi, Tovi Grossman, Daylon Walden, Michael Glueck, and Carine Rognon

CHI 2024

Input on-the-go    

Transferable Microgestures Across Hand Posture and Location Constraints

Nikhita Joshi, Parastoo Abtahi, Raj Sodhi, Nitzan Bartov, Jackson Rushing, Christopher Collins, Daniel Vogel, and Michael Glueck

UIST 2023

Input on-the-go      

STAR: Smartphone-analogous Typing in Augmented Reality

Taejun Kim, Amy Karlson, Aakar Gupta, Tovi Grossman, Jason Wu, Parastoo Abtahi, Christopher Collins, Michael Glueck, Hemant Surale

UIST 2023

Input on-the-go      

Beyond Being Real: A Sensorimotor Control Perspective on Interactions in Virtual Reality

Parastoo Abtahi, Sidney Hough, James Landay, Sean Follmer

CHI 2022

Beyond-real VR      

Physical Practices and the Role of Technology in Manual Self-Tracking 

Parastoo Abtahi, Victoria Ding, Anna Yang, Tommy Bruzzese, Alyssa Romanos, Elizabeth Murnane, Sean Follmer, James Landay

UbiComp 2021  

Quantified self    

uist20.png

UIST 2020  

Illusory VR      

Hover_Haptics

Beyond The Force: Using Quadcopters for Haptics in Virtual Reality

Parastoo Abtahi, Benoit Landry, Jackie (Junrui) Yang, Marco Pavone, Sean Follmer, James Landay

CHI 2019     Honorable Mention

Illusory VR          

Im_a_Giant

I’m a Giant: Walking in Large Virtual Environments at High Speed Gains

Parastoo Abtahi, Mar Gonzalez-Franco, Eyal Ofek, Anthony Steed

CHI 2019  

Beyond-real VR        

2_3.png

CHI 2018     Honorable Mention

Illusory VR      

Drone_Near_Me

Drone Near Me: Exploring Touch-Based Human-Drone Interaction

Parastoo Abtahi, David Zhao, Jane E, James Landay

UbiComp 2017  

Situated AI interactions      

 

Parastoo Abtahi, PhD

Assistant Professor
Computer Science Department
Princeton University

News  

  Mo Kari has joined Ψ Lab as a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow!

  Lauren, Cyrus, Daisy, and Ching-Yi have joined Princeton HCI as first-year PhD students!


Teaching 2024-2025

COS 597U: Spatial Computing (Fall)
COS IW: Interactive AR Experiences (Spring)

Resources

[coming soon]