Research Portfolio
Sean Rintel
A decade of research on embodied presence, intentional collaboration, and AI as a tool for thought
2015–2026
Three Threads of Research
This document traces three major research threads from 2015–2026, showing how ideas evolved, connected, and converged to address fundamental questions about remote work, intentional collaboration, and human–AI partnership.
Remote Equity & Presence tackles the challenge of giving remote workers genuine agency in shared spaces—from foundational video calling research through embodied avatars and telepresence. Meeting Intentionality & AI explores how to make meetings more focused and goal-aligned, extending across continuous work processes. AI & Cognition questions how AI systems shape human thinking, learning, and understanding.
Each thread represents a progression: from identifying problems through exploratory research, to controlled validation, to scaled deployment. Together, they form a connected research landscape where each thread informs and enables the others.
Remote Equity & Presence
As remote and hybrid work became prevalent, a fundamental inequality emerged: remote participants lacked the embodied presence of in-person attendees. This thread traces 10+ years of research from foundational video calling studies through embodied avatars and telepresence robots, exploring how technology can give remote workers genuine presence and agency in shared physical and digital spaces.
Meeting Intentionality & AI
Meetings are plagued by unclear goals, misaligned expectations, and lack of focus. Can AI help make meeting intentions explicit, support goal-setting and reflection, and extend intentionality across continuous work processes—so decisions and learning from one meeting shape what happens in the next?
AI & Cognition
Generative AI is reshaping how people work and think. But do AI systems actually enhance or undermine human cognition? How can AI systems be designed as tools for human thought rather than replacements for human judgment?
Thread Convergence
The three threads increasingly intersect, showing how remote equity, intentional collaboration, and human-centered AI are deeply interconnected:
Remote Equity × Meeting Intentionality: Asymmetrical design makes sense in asymmetrical environments. Hybridge shows that intentional spatial asymmetry—rather than forcing false equivalence—actually enables remote participants genuine agency. One-size-fits-all solutions fail; tailored design for distinct roles succeeds.
Meeting Intentionality × AI & Cognition: Design for outcomes across workflows, not for singular tasks or moments. Papers like "Designing Interfaces that Support Temporal Work" show that both prospective intentionality (what do we want to accomplish?) and retrospective intentionality (what did we learn?) must be woven into continuous work processes. AI can bridge these when designed to support thinking, not replace it.
Research Synthesis: What We've Learned (2015–2026)
Over the past decade, three interconnected insights have emerged:
1. Remote presence is embodied, not just visual. Early video calling research revealed that presence requires more than a camera feed. Over 10+ years, we've shown that motion, spatial context, gaze, audio spatialization, and tangible interaction—not photorealism—create genuine presence. This matters because remote workers with genuine presence can participate fully in intentional collaboration.
2. Intentionality requires both explicit goals and continuous attention. Meetings fail not because people can't focus, but because goals are unclear and drift over time. AI can help make intentions explicit before and during meetings, and extend that clarity across multiple meetings as a continuous process. But AI interventions must be non-intrusive—supporting metacognitive awareness rather than replacing judgment.
3. AI is a cognitive tool, not a cognitive replacement. When AI systems help people think more clearly, work across diverse perspectives, and engage in deeper reflection, they amplify human agency. When they reduce cognitive engagement or replace judgment with convenience, they undermine it. The difference lies in system design: tools that make thinking visible and support metacognition vs. tools that hide thinking and simplify it away.
The frontier ahead: Integrated systems that combine all three: embodied presence (so remote workers have agency), explicit intentions (so collaboration is purposeful), and human-centered AI (so thinking stays visible and augmented, not replaced). The research that gets us there will require more interdisciplinary collaboration, more longitudinal validation, and more serious attention to how systems affect human cognition and equity.
Design Implications
1. Asymmetry is a feature, not a bug. Stop designing for false equity. Hybrid environments are fundamentally asymmetrical—some people are co-located, others remote. Design intentionally for those distinct contexts, with tools and affordances tailored to each role. Symmetry creates burden; asymmetrical design creates agency.
2. Design for the workflow, not the moment. Single-meeting focus fails. Build systems that maintain intention and learning across multiple meetings as a continuous process. Include both prospective intentionality (what are we trying to accomplish?) and retrospective intentionality (what did we learn?) as native features, not afterthoughts.
3. Make thinking visible. AI amplifies cognition only when systems reveal how outputs were generated, when users can push back on results, and when reasoning remains transparent. Hide the thinking, and you hide the harm. Visible thinking enables metacognition—the foundation of human agency with AI.
4. Motion and interaction matter more than realism. People connect to responsiveness and motion, not photorealism. Invest in systems that respond to subtle human behaviors—nods, gaze, gesture—rather than pursuing perfect likeness. Moderate animation beats perfect rendering.
Research portfolio curated by Sean Rintel, April 2026