Themes of Work

Our research centres around the body and how technology can be used to improve how that body exists and interacts with the surrounding environment. We focus on haptic and aural modalities, using textiles as the physical medium for building wearable computational systems. Some of the research projects we undertake focus exclusively on textile sensing and interfaces whilst other focus solely on how auditory displays can be improved for users. A growing area of our work is looking towards how these two complementary technologies can be brought together in novel applications.

Below is an non-exhaustive list of some of the research we have undertaken.

Current EU Funded Projects

SONICOM

SONICOM is a research project that aims to revolutionise the way we interact socially within augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) environments and applications, from online meetings to VR gaming.

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STELEC

STELEC, short for Sustainable Textile ELECtronics, is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) under the Pathfinder programmes in the responsible electronics topic seeking cutting-edge innovation with an end goal at TRL 2-3. The project is a multinational collaboration of research institutes, universities and companies across Europe. It aims at developing next generation textile-based electronics in applications from sensing, processing to AI, with a commitment to full lifecycle sustainability.

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Citation

BibTex format

@article{Pope:2026:pnasnexus/pgaf394,
author = {Pope, VC and Stewart, R and Chew, E},
doi = {pnasnexus/pgaf394},
journal = {PNAS Nexus},
title = {Timing structures in live comedy: A matched-sequence approach to mapping performance dynamics.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf394},
volume = {5},
year = {2026}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Live performance is a ubiquitous cultural and social behavior that has not yet benefited from systematic scientific study. We present a computational methodology that visualizes and describes timing structures in live performance, showcasing their engineering. This novel analysis framework, Topology Analysis of Matching Sequences (TAMS), automatically detects matching sequences and maps their timing. Locating material that is repeated across performances reveals the skill behind apparently effortless communication between performer and audience. Applying TAMS to two stand-up comedy tours uncovered structural features at the macro- and microlevels, including consistently placed novel material at the beginning of shows and sections dedicated to tightly timed repeated material. TAMS also provides a new frame of reference for examining audience-performer dynamics through speech microtiming and laughter. TAMS can be applied to other forms of repeated speech, such as political stump speeches, as well as extended to other types of performance, such as dance.
AU  - Pope,VC
AU  - Stewart,R
AU  - Chew,E
DO  - pnasnexus/pgaf394
PY  - 2026///
TI  - Timing structures in live comedy: A matched-sequence approach to mapping performance dynamics.
T2  - PNAS Nexus
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf394
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41567929
VL  - 5
ER  -
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