Simon Kimmel

Simon is a Senior Researcher at OFFIS, focusing on novel interaction possibilities and application areas of mixed reality. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering of Socio-Technical Systems from the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg.

Currently, he is part of the Pflegeinnovationszentrum (PIZ), where he investigates how Augmented and Virtual Reality can foster social presence and connectedness in telecare scenarios — for example, by supporting meaningful interaction between care workers and patients during robotic or remote care activities. Previously, he contributed to the ZEIT project, exploring the use of virtual reality as a communication tool to strengthen emotional bonds between nursing home residents and their relatives.

Across his work, Simon’s research centers on enhancing social presence and empathy through immersive technologies, with the overarching goal of creating solutions that enable more meaningful and intimate social bonds across distance.