Étienne Peillard · Associate Professor

Perception and action in extended reality.

I study how augmented and virtual environments reshape the way people perceive, embody and act—and how immersive interfaces can help humans cooperate with autonomous systems.

Research structure of the PAEIAR augmented reality project
Current focus Augmented affordances and embodied interaction
Etienne Peillard

Etienne Peillard

Associate Professor

IMT Atlantique

LS2N

CNRS IRL CROSSING

Research profile

Since August 1, 2026, I have been an Associate Professor in the Department of Automatic Control, Production Engineering and Computer Science (DAPI) at IMT Atlantique, on the Nantes campus. I am a member of the PACCE team at the LS2N (UMR CNRS 6004).

Alongside this primary affiliation, I am an associate member of the CNRS International Research Laboratory CROSSING, the French–Australian laboratory for Human / Autonomous Agents Teaming, and facilitate its Interaction working group. CROSSING provides the research framework for my joint PhD supervision and collaborations in Australia.

From September 1, 2021 to July 31, 2026, I was based on IMT Atlantique’s Brest campus, in the Computer Science department, where I was a member of the INUIT team at Lab-STICC (UMR CNRS 6285).

My research focuses on perception and embodied interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality. It explores how augmented representations alter spatial perception, body perception, and affordances, as well as how immersive interfaces can support cooperation between humans and autonomous or intelligent systems. I lead the ANR JCJC PAEIAR project and contribute to several national and international projects involving partners in Australia and Japan.

In nov. 2020, I defended my PhD thesis, entitled “Toward a Characterization of Perceptual Biases in Mixed Reality: A Study of Factors Inducing Distance Misperception”, conducted in cooperation between Centrale Nantes, the Inria Hybrid team as well as the AAU Crenau, and supervised by Guillaume Moreau, Ferran Argelaguet and Jean-Marie Normand.

Before this, I obtained an engineering degree at Centrale Nantes in 2017.

I am currently preparing my habilitation to direct research (HDR), with a defense planned for late 2026 or early 2027.

Interests
  • Augmented Reality
  • Virtual Reality
  • Cognition & Perception
  • Embodied Interaction
  • Human-System Cooperation
  • Human Factors / HCI
Education
  • PhD in Virtual and Augmented Reality, 2020

    Inria Rennes - Hybrid / UMR AAU Crenau – Centrale Nantes

  • 'Diplôme d’Ingénieur' (equivalent to MSc), 2017

    Centrale Nantes

Now / 2026

A quick view of what is happening now.

01

New role

Associate Professor in Nantes

Joining IMT Atlantique’s DAPI department and the PACCE team at LS2N in August 2026.

02

Funded research

ANR JCJC PAEIAR

Leading a 42-month project on augmented affordances and gesture guidance in hybrid environments.

Discover the project
03

Next milestone

Habilitation (HDR)

Preparing an HDR on perception and embodied interaction, with a defense planned for late 2026 or early 2027.

Research infrastructure · IMT Atlantique

A shared platform for human-centered experimentation

CEXI-HA brings together immersive systems, motion capture, eye tracking, physiological sensing, and experimental-method support to study interactions between people and emerging technologies.

Demonstration of immersive and interactive research at the CEXI-HA platform From protocol to demonstrator Experimental design, controlled studies, prototyping, and evaluation.

Selected research

Three complementary directions across perception, embodiment and human–system cooperation.

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