Hello! I am a PhD Candidate at Stony Brook University (New York), advised by Dr. Arie E. Kaufman. My research focuses on understanding multimodal human behavior, interaction, and environmental context to design adaptive user experiences across XR, spatial computing, and ubiquitous systems. I study recurring interaction patterns and domain-specific needs and encode this knowledge into computational representations that help interactive systems "understand" users and their contexts and "adapt" their responses accordingly. Building on these representations, I investigate novel interaction and visualization paradigms for AI-assisted and cross-device experiences that extend across physical and virtual environments. My work draws on multimodal behavioral and contextual cues to support human-to-human and human-to-AI communication, context-aware interaction, and privacy-aware and trustworthy user experiences.

I see myself as an applied "systems" researcher who enjoys translating observations about users and their interactions into interactive systems, computational representations, and frameworks for XR, Visualization, and HCI. I am particularly interested in bridging emerging AI capabilities with human-centered interaction to create experiences that adapt across users and computing contexts. My research also connects with adjacent areas of computing, and I enjoy interdisciplinary collaboration that expands how intelligent interactive systems can understand and respond to people. I actively contribute to the XR, Visualization, and HCI research communities.
Prior to my PhD journey, I received my master's degree from Stony Brook University in 2020, where I also had the opportunity to conduct research under the supervision of Dr. Xiaojun Bi. I received my bachelor's degree from Soongsil University, South Korea, in 2017.

News

Publications

  • Teaser image for SpeechLess: Micro-utterance with Personalized Spatial Memory-aware Assistant in Everyday Augmented Reality
    SpeechLess: Micro-utterance with Personalized Spatial Memory-aware Assistant in Everyday Augmented Reality Yoonsang Kim, Devshree Jadeja, Divyansh Pradhan, Yalong Yang, Arie Kaufman IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR)., 2026
  • Teaser image for From Speech-to-Spatial: Grounding Utterances on A Live Shared View with Augmented Reality
    From Speech-to-Spatial: Grounding Utterances on A Live Shared View with Augmented Reality Yoonsang Kim, Divyansh Pradhan, Devshree Jadeja, Arie Kaufman IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR)., 2026
  • Teaser image for Memento: Towards Proactive Visualization of Everyday Memories with Personal Wearable AR Assistant
    Memento: Towards Proactive Visualization of Everyday Memories with Personal Wearable AR Assistant Yoonsang Kim, Yalong Yang, Arie Kaufman IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (IEEE VRW)., 2026
  • Teaser image for Evaluating Spatialized Auditory Cues for Rapid Attention Capture in XR
    Honorable Mention Evaluating Spatialized Auditory Cues for Rapid Attention Capture in XR Yoonsang Kim, Swapnil Dey, Arie Kaufman IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (IEEE VRW)., 2026
  • Teaser image for AuxiScope: Handheld Augmented Reality Tablet as an Auxiliary Display for Large-Scale Display Systems
    AuxiScope: Handheld Augmented Reality Tablet as an Auxiliary Display for Large-Scale Display Systems Matthew Castellana, Chahat Kalsi, Yoonsang Kim, Saeed Boorboor, Arie Kaufman IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (IEEE ISMAR)., 2025
  • Teaser image for Explainable XR: Understanding User Behaviors of XR Environments using LLM-assisted Analytics Framework
    Explainable XR: Understanding User Behaviors of XR Environments using LLM-assisted Analytics Framework Yoonsang Kim, Zainab Aamir, Mithilesh Singh, Saeed Boorboor, Klaus Mueller, Arie Kaufman IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (IEEE TVCG)., 2025 (via IEEE VR - Special issue)
  • Teaser image for VoxAR: Adaptive Visualization of Volume Rendered Objects in Optical See-Through Augmented Reality
    VoxAR: Adaptive Visualization of Volume Rendered Objects in Optical See-Through Augmented Reality Saeed Boorboor, Matthew Castellana, Yoonsang Kim, Zhutian Chen, Johanna Beyer, Hanspeter Pfister, Arie Kaufman IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (IEEE TVCG)., 2023
  • Teaser image for Submerse: Visualizing Storm Surge Flooding Simulations in Immersive Display Ecologies
    Submerse: Visualizing Storm Surge Flooding Simulations in Immersive Display Ecologies Saeed Boorboor, Yoonsang Kim, Ping Hu, Josef M Moses, Brian A Colle, Arie Kaufman IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (IEEE TVCG)., 2023
  • Teaser image for Erebus: Access Control for Augmented Reality Systems
    Erebus: Access Control for Augmented Reality Systems Yoonsang Kim, Sanket Goutham, Amir Rahmati, Arie Kaufman USENIX Conference on Security Symposium (USENIX Security)., 2023
  • Teaser image for Design of Privacy Preservation System in Augmented Reality
    Design of Privacy Preservation System in Augmented Reality Yoonsang Kim, Saeed Boorboor, Amir Rahmati, Arie Kaufman IEEE Symposium on Visualization for Cyber Security (IEEE VizSec)., 2021
  • Teaser image for Modeling Two-Dimensional Touch Pointing
    Honorable Mention Modeling Two-Dimensional Touch Pointing Yu-Jung Ko, Hang Zhao, Yoonsang Kim, IV Ramakrishnan, Shumin Zhai, Xiaojun Bi ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (ACM UIST)., 2020
  • Teaser image for Using Bayes' Theorem for Command Input: Principle, Models, and Applications
    Using Bayes' Theorem for Command Input: Principle, Models, and Applications Suwen Zhu, Yoonsang Kim, Jingjie Zheng, Jennifer Yi Luo, Liuping Wang, Xiangmin Fan, Feng Tian, Xiaojun Bi ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI)., 2020
  • Teaser image for Flexible Remote-Control Application for Virtual Reality using Virtual Graphics Driver and OpenCV
    Flexible Remote-Control Application for Virtual Reality using Virtual Graphics Driver and OpenCV Yoonsang Kim, Geunyeop Ha, Sangjun Lee International Journal of Applied Engineering Research (IJAER)., 2017

Ongoing Projects

Projects introduced below are still in progress, thus, cannot be disclosed in detail.
Also, my other core projects are NOT included in the list below. Please reach out to me to learn more. I am open for collaboration or discussion.

  • Using Hand-held AR Device for Tiled-display Systems
    Using Hand-held AR Device for Tiled-display Systems

    We are designing an end-to-end framework that facilitates the usability of a mobile hand-held AR device in tiled-display systems.

  • Exploring Spatial Computing for Network Security Applications
    Exploring Spatial Computing for Network Security Applications

    We are exploring immersive interface designs for network security applications and investigate their use-cases.

  • Everyday AR
    Everyday AR

    Designing a wearable interface with context-awareness for everyday form factors.

  • Immersive Media
    Immersive Media

    Designing an immersive interface for future of media and XR.