Editorial: New frontiers in immersive technologies: expanding the scope of telepresence, monitoring, and intervention

Extended Reality (XR)—encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—is rapidly transforming how humans explore, monitor, and intervene in remote, complex, or hazardous environments. When combined with artificial intelligence (AI), immersive technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to enhance telepresence, teleoperation, and human–machine interaction through richer perceptual interfaces, intelligent mediation, and data-driven decision support (Figure 1). This Research Topic was conceived to showcase recent advances at this intersection, with a particular focus on immersive interfaces, mediated observation, and AI-assisted control for real-world applications. Contributions collected in this Research Topic reflect both the technological breadth of contemporary XR research and a shared concern with human-centred design, usability, and real-world impact. Together, they illustrate how immersive systems are moving beyond laboratory demonstrations toward operational contexts such as space exploration, robotic teleoperation, education, and industrial maintenance.