Markus Tatzgern

Augmented and Virtual Reality Researcher

I am Professor for Mixed Reality and Game Development and Head of Research at the Department of Creative Technologies, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences. I also lead the Academic Area Game & Mixed Reality and have built an interdisciplinary research group working at the intersection of AR/VR, human–computer interaction, and generative AI.

My research focuses on visualization and interaction techniques for Augmented and Virtual Reality, aiming to seamlessly bridge digital and physical worlds. I explore adaptive visualization, multimodal interaction, and AI-driven approaches to create human-centered AR/VR solutions, with applications in training, learning, healthcare, human–robot interaction, and everyday augmentation.

I received my M.S. and Ph.D. with highest distinction from Graz University of Technology, where I also worked as a researcher at the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Handheld Augmented Reality. My work has been published at top-tier venues including ACM CHI, IEEE ISMAR, IEEE VR, and IEEE TVCG, and has resulted in several patents on augmented reality visualization. My research has been recognized with multiple honorable mention awards.

I contribute actively to the scientific community as Program Committee member and reviewer, and served as Program Chair of IEEE ISMAR in 2024 and 2025. I currently serve as Treasurer of ACM SIGCHI Austria. Beyond academia, I am committed to outreach, engaging with industry, media, and the public to advance understanding and adoption of immersive technologies.

Publications

Peer-reviewed

  1. Jan-Hendrik Sünderkamp, Helen Stefanidi, Alexander Meschtscherjakov and Markus Tatzgern From Lab to Sidewalk: Exploring AR Interaction Techniques Outdoors and in Motion using Fitts’ Law. In Proceedings of ACM Symp. on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST), 2025.

  2. Sebastian Hubenschmid, Johannes Zagermann, Robin Erb, Tiare Feuchtner, Jens Grubert, Markus Tatzgern, Dieter Schmalstieg, and Harald Reiterer. SpatialMouse : A Hybrid Pointing Device for Seamless Interaction Across 2D and 3D Space. In Proceedings of ACM Symp. on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST), 2025.

  3. Sebastian Hubenschmid, Johannes Zagermann, Niklas Elmqvist, Tiare Feuchtner, Jens Grubert, Markus Tatzgern, Dieter Schmalstieg, and Harald Reiterer. Revisiting Hybrid Input Devices for Immersive Analytic. In IEEE Visualization & Visual Analytics (VIS), Workshop Human Factors in Immersive Analytics, 2025.

  4. Gerlinde Emsenhuber, Tobias Langlotz, Denis Kalkofen, and Markus Tatzgern. Mobile Eye-Perspective Rendering for Optical See-through Head-mounted Display. In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), Special Issue IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2025.

  5. Helen Stefanidi, Jan-Hendrik Sünderkamp, Markus Tatzgern, Alina Itzlinger, and Alexander Meschtscherjakov. You’re making things AR-kward: Exploring Augmented Reality In-the-Wild. In Proceedings of ACM Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI), Special Issue ACM International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI), p.24, 2025. Honorable Mention for Best Paper

  6. Helen Stefanidi, Jan-Hendrik Sünderkamp, Alina Itzlinger, Markus Tatzgern, and Alexander Meschtscherjakov. Exploring AR In-the-Wild: An Autoethnographic Study at a Christmas Market. In Companion Publication of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS), p.7, 2025.

  7. Arno Kinzinger, Winfried J. Steiner, Markus Tatzgern, and Christine Vallaster. Interactive product presentation in an immersive environment: The influence of functional control on hedonic aspects. In Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier., p. 14, 2025.

  8. Helen Stefanidi, Markus Tatzgern, Alina Itzlinger, and Alexander Meschtscherjakov. Bringing Adaptive On-the-Move AR to Outdoor Environments. In CM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Workshop Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces., 2025.

  9. Markus Tatzgern, David Fasching, Vivian Gómez, Sebastián Calvache and Pablo Figueroa. Passive Haptic Feedback for Control Elements in Virtual Reality. In 2024 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), 749–50, 2024.

  10. Eleni Stefanidi, Markus Tatzgern and Alexander Meschtscherjakov. Augmented Reality on the Move: A Systematic Literature Review for Vulnerable Road Users. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 8, no. MHCI (September 2024): 30 pages.

  11. Lucchas Ribeiro Skreinig, Peter Mohr, Bianca Berger, Markus Tatzgern, Dieter Schmalstieg and Denis Kalkofen. Immersive Authoring by Demonstration of Industrial Procedures. In International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2024 IEEE. ISMAR ’24, 2024.

  12. Jan Hendrik Plümer, Kevin Yu, Ulrich Eck, Denis Kalkofen, Philipp Steininger, Nassir Navab and Markus Tatzgern. XR Prototyping of Mixed Reality Visualizations: Compensating Interaction Latency for a Medical Imaging Robot. In International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2024 IEEE. ISMAR ’24, 2024. Honorable Mention for Best Paper

  13. Gerlinde Emsenhuber, Tobias Langlotz, Denis Kalkofen, Jonathan Sutton and Markus Tatzgern. Eye-Perspective View Management for Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Displays. In In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 16 pages. CHI ’23. ACM, 2023.

  14. Jan Hendrik Plümer and Markus Tatzgern. Towards a Framework for Validating XR Prototyping for Performance Evaluations of Simulated User Experiences. In International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2023 IEEE. ISMAR ’23, 2023.

  15. Gerlinde Emsenhuber, Michael Domhardt, Tobias Langlotz, Denis Kalkofen and Markus Tatzgern. Towards Eye-Perspective Rendering for Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Displays. In IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, 1–2. VRW ’22. IEEE, 2022.

  16. Arno Kinzinger, Wienfried Steiner, Markus Tatzgern and Christine Vallaster. Comparing Low Sensory Enabling (LSE) and High Sensory Enabling (HSE) Virtual Product Presentation Modes in e-Commerce. Information Systems Journal 32, no. 5 (September 2022): 1034–63.

  17. Markus Tatzgern, Michael Domhardt, Martin Wolf, Michael Cenger, Gerlinde Emsenhuber, Radomir Dinic, Nathalie Gerner and Arnulf Hartl. AirRes Mask: A Precise and Robust Virtual Reality Breathing Interface Utilizing Breathing Resistance as Output Modality. In In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 14 pages, Honorable Mention for Best Paper. CHI ’22. ACM, 2022.

  18. Markus Tatzgern and Christoph Birgmann. Exploring Input Approximations for Control Panels in Virtual Reality. In IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, 1–9. VR ’21. IEEE, 2021.

  19. Masahiro Yamaguchi, Shohei Mori, Peter Mohr, Markus Tatzgern, Ana Stanescu, Hideo Saito and Denis Kalkofen. Video-Annotated Augmented Reality Assembly Tutorials. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, 1010–22. UIST ’20. ACM, 2020.

  20. Peter Mohr, Markus Tatzgern, Tobias Langlotz, Andreas Lang, Dieter Schmalstieg and Denis Kalkofen. TrackCap: Enabling Smartphones for 3D Interaction on Mobile Head-Mounted Displays. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–11. CHI ’19. ACM, 2019.

  21. Peter Mohr, David Mandl, Markus Tatzgern, Eduardo Veas, Dieter Schmalstieg and Denis Kalkofen. Retargeting Video Tutorials Showing Tools With Surface Contact to Augmented Reality. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 6547–58. ACM, 2017.

  22. Peter Mohr, Markus Tatzgern, Jens Grubert, Dieter Schmalstieg and Denis Kalkofen. Adaptive User Perspective Rendering for Handheld Augmented Reality. In IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces, 176–81, Honorable Mention for Best Paper, 2017.

  23. Markus Tatzgern, Valeria Orso, Denis Kalkofen, Giulio Jacucci, Luciano Gamberini and Dieter Schmalstieg. Adaptive Information Density for Augmented Reality Displays. In IEEE Virtual Reality, 83–92, 2016.

  24. Jacob Boesen Madsen, Markus Tatzgern, Claus B Madsen, Dieter Schmalstieg and Denis Kalkofen. Temporal Coherence Strategies for Augmented Reality Labeling. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 22, no. 4 (April 2016): 1415–23.

  25. Markus Tatzgern, Raphael Grasset, Eduardo Veas, Denis Kalkofen, Hartmut Seichter and Dieter Schmalstieg. Exploring Real World Points of Interest: Design and Evaluation of Object-Centric Exploration Techniques for Augmented Reality. Pervasive Mobile Computing: Special Issue on Mobile and Pervasive Applications in Tourism 18 (2015): 55–70.

  26. Markus Tatzgern, Raphael Grasset, Denis Kalkofen and Dieter Schmalstieg. Transitional Augmented Reality Navigation for Live Captured Scenes. In IEEE Virtual Reality, 21–26, 2014.

  27. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen, Raphael Grasset and Dieter Schmalstieg. Hedgehog Labeling: View Management Techniques for External Labels in 3D Space. In IEEE Virtual Reality, 27–32, 2014.

  28. Markus Tatzgern, Raphael Grasset, Eduardo Veas, Denis Kalkofen, Hartmut Seichter and Dieter Schmalstieg. Exploring Distant Objects with Augmented Reality. In Proceedings of the Joint Virtual Reality Conference of EGVE - EuroVR, 49–56. The Eurographics Association, 2013.

  29. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen and Dieter Schmalstieg. Dynamic Compact Visualizations for Augmented Reality. In IEEE Virtual Reality, 3–6, 2013.

  30. Raphael Grasset, Tobias Langlotz, Denis Kalkofen, Markus Tatzgern and Dieter Schmalstieg. Image-Driven View Management for Augmented Reality Browsers. In Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, 177–86, 2012.

  31. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen and Dieter Schmalstieg. Multi-Perspective Compact Explosion Diagrams. Computers & Graphics 35, no. 1 (2011): 135–47.

  32. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen, Raphael Grasset and Dieter Schmalstieg. Embedded Virtual Views for Augmented Reality Navigation. In International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality - Workshop on Visualization in Mixed Reality Environments, 2011.

  33. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen and Dieter Schmalstieg. Compact Explosion Diagrams. In Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering, 35:17–26, 2010.

  34. Denis Kalkofen, Markus Tatzgern, Dieter Schmalstieg, Denis Kalkofen, Markus Tatzgern and Dieter Schmalstieg. Explosion Diagrams in Augmented Reality. In IEEE Virtual Reality, 71–78, 2009.

Theses

  1. Markus Tatzgern. “Situated Visualization in Augmented Reality.” PhD thesis, Graz University of Technology, 2015.
  2. Markus Tatzgern. “A Framework for Automatically Creating 3D Explosion Diagrams.” Master's thesis, Graz University of Technology, 2008.

Patents

  1. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen, Dieter Schmalstieg and Raphael Grasset. “Hierarchical Clustering for View Management Augmented Reality.” WO Patent 2015142576, September 2015.
  2. Raphael Grasset, Markus Tatzgern, Tobias Langlotz, Denis Kalkofen and Dieter Schmalstieg. “Image-Driven View Management for Annotations.” WO Patent 2013176830, November 2013.
  3. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen and Dieter Schmalstieg. “Efficient Information Presentation for Augmented Reality.” WO Patent 2012033768, March 2012.
  4. Markus Tatzgern, Denis Kalkofen and Dieter Schmalstieg. “Efficient Information Presentation for Augmented Reality.” US Patent 20120075433, March 2012.
Copyright © 2026 Markus Tatzgern