  Hybrid mixed-reality (XR) internet-of-things (IoT) research, here called XRI,
aims at a strong integration between physical and virtual objects,
environments, and agents wherein IoT-enabled edge devices are deployed for
sensing, context understanding, networked communication and control of device
actuators. Likewise, as augmented reality systems provide an immersive overlay
on the environments, and virtual reality provides fully immersive environments,
the merger of these domains leads to immersive smart spaces that are
hyper-connected, adaptive and dynamic components that anchor the metaverse to
real-world constructs. Enabling the human-in-the-loop to remain engaged and
connected across these virtual-physical hybrid environments requires advances
in user interaction that are multi-dimensional. This work investigates the
potential to transition the user interface to the human body as an
extended-reality avatar with hybrid extended-body interfaces that can interact
both with the physical and virtual sides of the metaverse. It contributes: i)
an overview of metaverses, XRI, and avatarization concepts, ii) a taxonomy
landscape for extended XRI body interfaces, iii) an architecture and potential
interactions for XRI body designs, iv) a prototype XRI body implementation
based on the architecture, v) a design-science evaluation, toward enabling
future design research directions.
