Carnegie Mellon University

Extended Reality Technology Center 

Sees Extended Reality as the core paradigm in which future societies will communicate, interact and transact. XR includes any technology that allows for the information transfer between the physical and digital worlds, including augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.

Graphic that illustrates the 3 main components of XRTC: Research, Education, and Community. These components are overlapping

Research

XRTC brings together researchers and students from across campus through research projects, capstone projects, scholarship programs and residencies. Together, we tackle the main technological and conceptual challenges of XR and develop technologies that benefit both users and society at large.

XRTC addresses core challenges in our research, including computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning, display and sensing technology and human-computer interaction. Faculty members research a wide variety of topics, such as:

  • Digitizing humans and their behavior
  • Wearable sensing technologies
  • Haptic interfaces
  • Display hardware
  • Computational user interfaces

Education

We believe that XR is a new academic discipline needing ongoing academic leadership and multidisciplinary approaches. XRTC is committed to educating the next generation of students who will work on and solve key challenges in XR. 

XRTC and our partners define and engage in the development of curriculum to ensure the success of this next generation of students. This includes XR-centered course development covering important topics such as perception algorithms, display technologies and user interaction, all in a holistic, hands-on approach (example course: Interactive Extended Reality). This also means engaging with difficult questions that surround this technology such as accessibility, privacy, security, ethics and societal impact. XRTC follows an interdisciplinary approach, including graduate student “residency” programs, as well as creating courses and a new Master’s track.

Organizations interested in custom learning can participate in our executive and professional education program. Additional information can be found by visiting the Executive and Professional Education website.

Community

XRTC creates an engaged and informed community through events such as an annual partner conference, seminar series and workshops. Partners can participate in these events and by shaping the direction of XRTC education projects, research thrusts and projects, and overall direction. 

We help partners discover faculty collaborators from within the CMU community. Partners also have access to a large pool of talented students from diverse backgrounds such as technology, humanities, business and policy, spanning the full spectrum of key components of extended reality.

Initiatives

The Extended Reality Technology Center aims to boost research and development of augmented and virtual reality technologies, catalyzing their adoption in industry and society at large. Key applications include health care, industrial training, entertainment, and communication.

The research thrust brings together faculty from across multiple disciplines to tackle new topics in XR. The education thrust focuses on developing a new educational curriculum at all levels including undergraduate, graduate and executive. The community thrust focuses on bringing new technology to the public’s attention to encourage adoption and participatory design.

Future Facilities

The Extended Reality Technology Center will be housed in the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) at Hazelwood Green, opening 2025/2026. We rely on four main parts of infrastructure: large-scale capture space (LSCS), immersive experience studio (IXS), XR pods and visitor space. We will have two sets of LCSCs and IXSs. The first set serves applied usage to develop applications and explore the boundaries of currently available XR technologies. The second set serves our research purposes, specifically the development of novel technologies to push those boundaries further. The LCSC and IXS will be available to the CMU community and XRTC partners.

Large-scale Capture Space 

The large-scale capture space (LSCS) will be an area of 50’ x 50’ x 20’, surrounded by a truss system. It will be equipped with state-of-the-art sensing for digitizing humans and the environment. The size will enable the development of novel technological approaches for sensing crowds and individual users, and a variety of motion ranges, from slow walking to sprints. 

Immersive Experience Studio

The immersive experience studio (IXS) will be a space of 15’ x 15’ x 15’ and feature a 360-degree or dome-shaped LED wall, as used for virtual production. Additionally, the space will be equipped with sensing approaches for digitizing humans and objects.

XR Pods

The XR Pods are a series of small flexible rooms that include commercially available XR hardware (displays, controllers, trackers) and research prototypes, as well as computers and hardware such as lights and sound systems to simulate various environments. These flexible spaces will be used by researchers and students.

Visitor Center 

The Visitor Center will house demonstrations of developed technologies. This space will also be used for workshops as well as other types of community outreach.

Check out our Youtube Channel to learn more