Xinyi (Luna) Liu

Xinyi (Luna) Liu is a first-year PhD student at the UCL Knowledge Lab, within the Spatial Computing Lab group, supervised by Dr Chris Rhodes and Prof Brigitta Zics, and funded by the CSC-UCL Joint Research Scholarship. Her research interests lie in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), extended reality (VR, AR, MR), embodied interaction, musical interaction and expression, and game design.

Luna’s doctoral research is practice-based and explores how extended reality can become more musical using biosensors, embodied interaction and AI-assisted mapping. She is also interested in how the body can become a more natural interface for creative expression in immersive environments. By revealing and sonifying otherwise invisible bodily data, her work offers new ways to understand ourselves and connect with others through sound. She aims to design XR systems that support new forms of musical interaction, making composition and performance more accessible, expressive and physically engaging.

 Drawing on an interdisciplinary background, Luna's earlier research applied both quantitative and qualitative methods to questions in journalism and media studies, including spoken communication, audiovisual media, international journalism and communication, intercultural communication and global political communication. She holds a BFA in Broadcasting and Anchoring and a BA in English (minor) from Sichuan International Studies University, an MA in Digital Media: Production from University College London, and an MA in Journalism: International Journalism and Communication from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Previously, Luna started out in front of cameras and microphones, telling stories through news, interviews and live events. She interned at media companies (e.g., Xinhua News Agency, CGTN) and technology companies (e.g., ByteDance, PPMT), and worked across the arts and media as a host, producer and journalist, with experience in both reporting and editing.

Outside work, Luna enjoys Chinese dance, piano, tennis, swimming and the Guqin, a traditional seven-string Chinese zither.

Research
Title: How can we make XR more musical? Biosensors as the impetus for heightened human-machine musicianship in extended reality 

Modern extended reality (XR) technologies are transforming how people create and experience music through their bodies as next-generation music-machine interfaces. XR equipment allows us to touch, visualise and hear data from our bodies, either as a digital overlay to our existing environment (e.g., heartbeat), or as a quasi-real world experience (VR). However, consumer/ubiquitous XR equipment does not enable interaction with digital environments in ways that people are naturally musically expressive in the real world, and rarely integrates body motion and biometric data together. Additionally, work on fusing sound, visuals and gamified music creation is limited, especially open-ended artistic expression.

This project addresses gaps using practice-based research methods and AI (machine learning) to create musical experiences in game engines (Unreal Engine 5/Unity) and capturing nuanced gestures with specialist biometric sensors (Delsys Trigno, Vicon MoCap), at UCL Spatial Computing Lab. The goal is to lower barriers to musical expression, empowering both experts and novices to ‘be musical’ using the body as an intuitive instrument for composition and performance in XR, revealing and sonifying invisible data to advance human-centered AI and deepen connection through sound. The outcomes are two-fold: technical (developing musical systems and instruments) and societal (opening new ways to be musically expressive).