Rice University + Houston Methodist
The Experiential Pixels Lab at Rice University is dedicated to advancing the state of extended reality systems through innovative research at the intersection of systems engineering, creative media, and human-computer interaction. The EXP Lab is housed in Rice University's Duncan Hall, as part of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. We carry deep partnership with Houston Methodist Bookout Center for medical XR innovation and ASU Mesh Labs for educational impact and workforce development.
We design and optimize software and hardware underlying XR platforms, from sensors and mobile platforms to rendering pipelines. This includes hardware-aware scheduling, perceptual capture, and OS-level integration for real-time immersive applications.
We build responsive systems that extend XR experiences through touch, sound, smell, and environmental feedback. Our research integrates haptic actuation, spatialized audio, olfactory synthesis, and real-time control into game engines and physical spaces.
We create multi-scale, multi-user, and multimodal systems to help people interact with complex datasets. These interfaces support scientific exploration, collaborative sensemaking, and public storytelling in spatial computing contexts.
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We develop authoring frameworks and collaborative toolkits that empower artists, educators, and domain experts to create immersive experiences. This includes AI-assisted workflows, multi-user content creation, and custom pipelines for VR/AR storytelling.