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KAIST Opens a New Era of Webtoons: From “Viewing” to “Experiencing”
Webtoons are coming to life in the physical world, ushering in a new era in which comics are not merely viewed, but experienced.
A KAIST research team has developed the world’s first next-generation extended reality (XR) comics platform that enables a wide range of readers to enjoy immersive, three-dimensional comics in physical space. By expanding webtoons beyond the screen and into the real world, the team has opened up new possibilities for the future of comics.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 21st of July that a research team led by Professor Ian Oakley from the School of Electrical Engineering has proposed core design principles and future directions for next-generation extended reality (XR) comics through a systematic user study involving 15 participants, including human-computer interaction (HCI) experts, professional webtoon creators, and readers.
The research team developed ComiXR, a new platform that enables users to both read and create comics in XR environments. Participants used the platform to transform a conventional print comic into an XR comic and explored how different visual, auditory, haptic, and interactive features could be combined.
Comics, which originated in printed books and newspapers, have evolved dramatically with the rise of smartphones. The vertical-scrolling format of webtoons has become particularly successful by adapting comics to the interaction methods of mobile devices.
The research team viewed XR devices as a potential next stage in this evolution. To explore how spatial depth, three-dimensional rendering, spatial audio, eye tracking, and facial expression tracking could be incorporated into comics, the team built ComiXR using a Meta Quest Pro headset.
While wearing the headset, participants freely positioned 3D characters, speech bubbles, sound effects, and other comic elements throughout a physical room. They were able to construct comic environments that they found comfortable, engaging, and immersive.
The results showed that readers strongly preferred designs that actively used the depth of physical space over simply displaying flat comic pages in a virtual environment. Immersion increased significantly when characters were positioned at a different depth from the background and speech bubbles were separated into distinct layers. In particular, an eye-tracking feature that revealed the next line of dialogue only when the reader looked at a specific character proved effective in preventing spoilers.
The platform also demonstrated new sensory experiences that are not possible in conventional comics. Special effects could be triggered in response to readers’ facial expressions, while haptic feedback could convey sensations such as a character’s heartbeat or the impact represented by an onomatopoeic effect.
Based on the study, the research team also proposed four key design concepts for XR comics. The first, “The Panel Gallery,” transforms the walls of a room into a gallery for displaying comic panels. The second, “The Pop-Up,” presents comics like pop-up books on desks or walls. The third, “Around Comic,” places 3D characters and other comic elements in outdoor spaces. The fourth, “Inclusive ComiX,” improves accessibility for a wide range of readers.
The research team expects XR comics to complement, rather than replace, existing smartphone-based webtoons. They could be used for special exhibitions and educational content that allow audiences to experience fictional worlds more vividly, as well as platforms that improve access to cultural content for a wider range of users.
Ammar Al-Taie, a postdoctoral researcher at the KAIST Information and Electronics Research Institute, participated as the first author, while Hyunyoung Han, a doctoral student in the School of Electrical Engineering, participated as a co-author.
The research was presented at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2026, or ACM DIS 2026, one of the leading international conferences in human-computer interaction and design. The ComiXR platform has also been released as open-source software for public use.
Paper title: ComiXR: Exploring Comic Layouts in eXtended Reality
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3800645.3812857
Related Video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1D9Efp3T0biDbUm1K5Gu6HLSSy89Uaq8R?usp=sharing
Open-source platform: https://github.com/ammarjamal/ComiXR
The research was supported by the KAIST Jang Young Sil Fel¬lowship Program (Excellence Track). The authors acknowledge support from the IITP (Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation)-ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) grant funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (IITP-2026-RS-2024-00436398).
2026.07.21 View 1743 -
KAIST to showcase a pack of KAIST Start-ups at CES 2023
- KAIST is to run an Exclusive Booth at the Venetian Expo (Hall G) in Eureka Park, at CES 2023, to be held in Las Vegas from Thursday, January 5th through Sunday, the 8th.
- Twelve businesses recently put together by KAIST faculty, alumni, and the start-ups given legal usage of KAIST technologies will be showcased.
- Out of the participating start-ups, the products by Fluiz and Hills Robotics were selected as the “CES Innovation Award 2023 Honoree”, scoring top in their respective categories.
On January 3, KAIST announced that there will be a KAIST booth at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023, the most influential tech event in the world, to be held in Las Vegas from January 3 to 8.
At this exclusive corner, KAIST will introduce the technologies of KAIST start-ups over the exhibition period.
KAIST first started holding its exclusive booth in CES 2019 with five start-up businesses, following up at CES 2020 with 12 start-ups and at CES 2022 with 10 start-ups. At CES 2023, which would be KAIST’s fourth conference, KAIST will be accompanying 12 businesses including start-ups by the faculty members, alumni, and technology transfer companies that just began their businesses with technologies from their research findings that stands a head above others.
To maximize the publicity opportunity, KAIST will support each company’s marketing strategies through cooperation with the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), and provide an opportunity for the school and each startup to create global identity and exhibit the excellence of their technologies at the convention.
The following companies will be at the KAIST Booth in Eureka Park:
The twelve startups mentioned above aim to achieve global technology commecialization in their respective fields of expertise spanning from eXtended Reality (XR) and gaming, to AI and robotics, vehicle and transport, mobile platform, smart city, autonomous driving, healthcare, internet of thing (IoT), through joint research and development, technology transfer and investment attraction from world’s leading institutions and enterprises.
In particular, Fluiz and Hills Robotics won the CES Innovation Award as 2023 Honorees and is expected to attain greater achievements in the future.
A staff member from the KAIST Institute of Technology Value Creation said, “The KAIST Showcase for CES 2023 has prepared a new pitching space for each of the companies for their own IR efforts, and we hope that KAIST startups will actively and effectively market their products and technologies while they are at the convention. We hope it will help them utilize their time here to establish their name in presence here which will eventually serve as a good foothold for them and their predecessors to further global commercialization goals.”
2023.01.04 View 33539