Toruń Interaction Lab (TIL) – a new interaction research center at Nicolaus Copernicus University

Toruń Interaction Lab (TIL) is a new, university-wide center for modern research on communication and interaction. TIL conducts and supports projects that examine how people coordinate attention, meaning, and action in real time—during conversation, cooperation, disagreement, teaching and learning, and in situations that require enhanced communication accessibility. By building a research program grounded in high-precision measurement, TIL strengthens NCU’s capacity for interaction research while also creating a pathway toward solutions that improve communication and well-being.

Interaction is a fundamental mechanism of social life. We communicate not only through words and voice, but also through gesture, facial expression, and gaze—and in many contexts we also rely on tactile and olfactory cues. In research, these channels are often studied in isolation, which makes it difficult to capture the full picture of authentic communication. TIL addresses this limitation by combining contemporary research instrumentation with an integrative approach that links multiple channels within a single framework. A particular focus of our work will be on how understanding and cooperation emerge—and become stable—over the course of interaction.

Three pillars of TIL

1) A research program on multimodal interaction
At its core, TIL develops and runs projects that connect perspectives from linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, the social sciences, and communication studies. Topics include mechanisms of joint attention, behavioral synchrony, the role of gaze and movement in coordination, and how different channels (voice, gesture, vision, touch, smell) jointly contribute to meaning in interaction.

2) Methods that connect “description” with “measurement”
TIL advances approaches that integrate qualitative methods (e.g., annotating communicative functions and interaction structure) with quantitative measurement (e.g., eye-tracking, motion capture, and psychophysiological indicators). Studies will be conducted, among others, in VR/XR environments and—where theoretically motivated—will incorporate controlled haptic and olfactory stimuli, enabling rigorous multisensory designs and robust data workflows.

3) Shared resources and structured support as a catalyst for better research
A key assumption of TIL is a new approach to research infrastructure understood as a university-wide resource. Researchers across NCU will be able to use TIL’s equipment, methodological consultation, technical support, and standardized procedures—making it easier to launch studies that are comparable, replicable, and suitable for pooling data across teams.

Societal applications and collaboration with partners

An important strand of TIL is translating research findings into practice—especially in the area of communication accessibility, with deliberate attention to the needs of Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Studies and solutions will be co-designed with community partners using a participatory model that supports well-targeted research questions and responsible interpretation of results.

Outputs and benefits

• research projects and publications integrating multi-channel interaction data,

• standardized protocols, tools, and best practices for data workflows,

• knowledge and skills exchange across teams: recurring workshops and annual training camps with micro-credentials,

• datasets and research materials shared in line with FAIR/CARE principles,

• public-facing outreach and application-oriented collaboration with partners.