Dr Daniele Giunchi PhD

School of Computer Science
Assistant Professor in Scene Understanding and Smart Environments (HCI, Computer Vision, Robotics)

Contact details

Email: d.giunchi@bham.ac.uk

View my research portal

Address: School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Daniele Giunchi is Assistant Professor in Scene Understanding and Smart Environments at the University of Birmingham. My research explores intelligent interaction in immersive environments, combining VR/AR, HCI, and deep learning—focusing on vocal interfaces, multimodal systems, and neural models for perception and collaboration.

Qualifications

Master in Optics and Quantum Information, Sapienza University of Rome, 2023
Ph.D. in Computer Science (Marie Curie Fellow), University College London, 2021
MSc in Astronomy, University of Bologna, 2004

Biography

Daniele Giunchi is an Assistant Professor in Scene Understanding and Smart Environments at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on immersive technologies, exploring how VR/AR, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and Artificial Intelligence—particularly deep learning and large language models—can enable more intuitive and adaptive user interaction. He is especially interested in vocal and multimodal interfaces for collaborative environments and perceptual scene understanding.

Daniele earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University College London (UCL) as a Marie Curie Fellow, where he developed neural network-based methods for artifact detection and 3D model retrieval in virtual environments. He also holds a Master’s in Optics and Quantum Information from Sapienza University of Rome, where he worked on quantum algorithms for holography, and a MSc in Astronomy from the University of Bologna, focusing on numerical simulation of cosmic structures.

His academic research is grounded in over a decade of industrial experience, having developed simulation, tracking, and 3D visualization systems in biomedical and aerospace domains. Prior to joining Birmingham, he held research roles at UCL and the CYENS Centre of Excellence, contributing to EU-funded projects on collaborative VR, smart cities, and immersive content generation.

Postgraduate supervision

AI applied to XR

Research

Daniele Giunchi’s research explores how intelligent systems can enable more natural, expressive, and adaptive interaction in extended reality (XR). His recent work focuses on the integration of large language models and speech-driven interfaces to support dynamic behavior design and real-time storytelling in immersive environments. By leveraging AI to interpret voice, gaze, and gesture, he develops advanced multimodal systems that make XR experiences more responsive and intuitive.

A central theme in his work is collaborative interaction—designing interfaces that enhance mutual awareness and coordination in distributed or co-located VR/AR settings. He investigates how behavioral cues, such as locomotion patterns and visual focus, can be used to facilitate shared understanding and narrative engagement in group tasks and exploratory scenarios.

His research also addresses the technical and design challenges of remote and asynchronous XR collaboration, building frameworks that maintain immersion and continuity across physical and virtual boundaries. Through projects that span from generative storytelling to predictive user modeling and foveated rendering, he advances the field of intelligent immersive interfaces.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Steed, A, Archer, D, Brandstätter, K, Congdon, B, Friston, S, Ganapathy, P, Giunchi, D, Izzouzi, L, Woo Park, G, swapp, D & thiel, FJ 2023, 'Lessons Learned Running Distributed and Remote Mixed Reality Experiments', Frontiers in Computer Science, vol. 4, 966319. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.966319

Bovo, R, Giunchi, D, Alebri, M, Steed, A, Costanza, E & Heinis, T 2022, 'Cone of Vision as a Behavioural Cue for VR Collaboration', Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 6, no. CSCW2, 502. https://doi.org/10.1145/3555615

Bovo, R, Giunchi, D, Costanza, E, Steed, A & Heinis, T 2022, 'Mitigation strategies for participant non-attendance in VR remote collaborative experiments', Frontiers in Computer Science, vol. 4, 928269. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.928269

Conference contribution

Gatti, E, Giunchi, D, Numan, N & Steed, A 2025, Around the Virtual Campfire: Early UX Insights into AI-Generated Stories in VR. in 2025 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and eXtended and Virtual Reality (AIxVR)., 10896202, IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, IEEE, pp. 136-141. https://doi.org/10.1109/AIxVR63409.2025.00027

Bovo, R, Giunchi, D, Cascarano, P, Gonzalez, EJ & Franco, MG 2025, Revisiting put-that-there, context aware window interactions via LLMs. in arXiv preprint.

Cascarano, P, Loretti, A, Zanuttini, L, Giunchi, D, Bovo, R, Hajahmadi, S, Vallasciani, G, Martinoni, M & Marfia, G 2025, See It and Hear It: Multimodal Guidance in MR-Based Neurosurgical Simulation for Skill Retention. in A Batmaz, MB Machuca, F Ortega, D Zielasko, K Kim, R Skarbez, L Plabst, A Banić & M Stroppa (eds), VRST '25: Proceedings of the 2025 31st ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology., 26, VRST: Virtual Reality Software and Technology, Association for Computing Machinery . https://doi.org/10.1145/3756884.3766034

Giunchi, D, Numan, N, Gatti, E & Steed, A 2024, Dreamcodevr: Towards democratizing behavior design in virtual reality with speech-driven programming. in 2024 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR). IEEE Annual International Symposium Virtual Reality, IEEE, pp. 579-589. https://doi.org/10.1109/VR58804.2024.00078

Friston, S, Congdon, B, Numan, N, Brandstätter, K, Izzouzi, L, Thiel, FJ, Zhang, J, Giunchi, D, Swapp, D & Steed, A 2023, Extending the Open Source Social Virtual Reality Ecosystem to the Browser in Ubiq. in A Moreno, A Jaspe-Villanueva, I Muñoz-Pandiella & J Posada (eds), Web3D '23: Proceedings of the 28th International ACM Conference on 3D Web Technology., 5, Proceedings of the International ACM Conference on 3D Web Technology, Association for Computing Machinery , pp. 1-9, The 28th International ACM Conference on 3D Web Technology, San Sebastian, Spain, 9/10/23. https://doi.org/10.1145/3611314.3615903

Bovo, R, Giunchi, D, Sidenmark, L, Newn, J, Gellersen, H, Costanza, E & Heinis, T 2023, Speech-augmented cone-of-vision for exploratory data analysis. in A Schmidt, K Väänänen, T Goyal, PO Kristensson, A Peters, S Mueller, JR Williamson & ML Wilson (eds), CHI '23: : Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 162, Association for Computing Machinery , CHI '23, Hamburg , Germany, 23/04/23. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581283

Numan, N, Lu, Z, Congdon, B, Giunchi, D, Rotsidis, A, Lernis, A, Larmo, K, Kourra, T, Charalambous, P, Chrysanthou, Y, julier, S & Steed, A 2023, Towards outdoor collaborative mixed reality: Lessons learnt from a prototype system. in 2023 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)., 10108714, Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), IEEE Conference on, IEEE, pp. 113-118, 30th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, Shanghai, China, 25/03/23. https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW58643.2023.00029

Numan, N, Giunchi, D, Congdon, B & Steed, A 2023, Ubiq-genie: Leveraging external frameworks for enhanced social vr experiences. in 2023 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)., 10108835, Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), IEEE Conference on, IEEE, pp. 497-501, 30th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, Shanghai, China, 25/03/23. https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW58643.2023.00108

Giunchi, D, James, S, Bovo, R, Degraen, D & Steed, A 2022, Explorative Study on Asymmetric Sketch Interactions for Object Retrieval in Virtual Reality. in Proceedings of 2022 International Conference on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (IMET). IEEE, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1109/IMET54801.2022.9929445

Giunchi, D, Sztrajman, A & Steed, A 2022, Fast Blue-Noise Generation via Unsupervised Learning. in 2022 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN). International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), IEEE, pp. 1-6, 2022 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Padua, Italy, 18/07/22. https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN55064.2022.9892330

Bovo, R, Giunchi, D, Sidenmark, L, Gellersen, H, Costanza, E & Heinis, T 2022, Real-time head-based deep-learning model for gaze probability regions in collaborative VR. in F Shic, E Kasneci, M Khamis, H Gellersen, K Krejtz, D Weiskopf, T Blascheck, J Bradshaw, H Vrzakova, K Binaee, M Burch, P Kiefer, R Bednarik, D Mardanbegi, C Clarke, R Kothari, V Rajanna, S Jayarathna, A Villanueva, A Atyabi & S Eivazi (eds), ETRA '22: 2022 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications., 6, ETRA: Eye Tracking Research and Applications, Association for Computing Machinery , pp. 1-8, ETRA '22: 2022 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications , Seattle, United Kingdom, 8/06/22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3517031.3529642

Bovo, R, Giunchi, D, Costanza, E, Steed, A & Heinis, T 2022, Shall I describe it or shall I move closer? Verbal references and locomotion in VR collaborative search tasks. in Proceedings of 20th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: The International Venue on Practice-centred Computing on the Design of Cooperation Technologies. Exploratory Papers, Reports of the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies, European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies, pp. 1-22, 20th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Coimbra, Portugal, 27/06/22. https://doi.org/10.48340/ecscw2022_ep02

View all publications in research portal