M.Sc. (Tech) Antti Peuhkurinen defends his doctoral thesis "Towards Extended Reality Internet: Scalable Distributed Software Infrastructure for Multiple Simultaneously Run Extended Reality Applications" on Friday the 9th of May 2025 at 12 o'clock in the University of Helsinki Athena building, Hall 107 (Siltavuorenpenger 3 A, 1st floor). His opponent is Professor Steven LaValle (University of Oulu) and custos Professor Tomi Männistö. The defence will be held in English.
The thesis of Antti Peuhkurinen is related to the research done in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki, and it is based on a close collaboration between the Technical University of Tampere, the University of Helsinki and the University of Jyväskylä as well as several companies. His supervisor has been Professor Tommi Mikkonen (University of Jyväskylä).
Towards Extended Reality Internet: Scalable Distributed Software Infrastructure for Multiple Simultaneously Run Extended Reality Applications
The human-computer interaction (HCI) continues to evolve as emerging technologies reshape how users engage with digital systems. A new computing paradigm, Extended Reality (XR), is taking shape alongside traditional desktop and mobile paradigms. The existing computing ecosystem is expected to adapt and expand to meet the unique demands introduced by XR.
In this thesis, we investigate how users interact with multiple simultaneous three-dimensional XR applications, how these applications are visualised, and how they are being developed. We introduce the concept of Extended Reality Internet, later XR Internet, to research the domain. The concept envisions a consumer-grade extended reality device and system that are used alongside desktop and mobile computing paradigms. The concept presented takes a stand especially for the high-fidelity case where multiple applications are run and rendered at the edge, with results streamed to a low-power end-user device.
We identify key challenges in realising the concept and present original solutions to address them. Our approach enables the scalable development of millions of XR applications through intuitive and easy-to-use toolkits. Additionally, we support the simultaneous execution of multiple XR applications via a novel shared scene approach, and render them in 3D using an innovative volume manager using state-of-the-art hardware-accelerated rendering technologies.
Availability of the dissertation
An electronic version of the doctoral dissertation will be available in the University of Helsinki open repository Helda at http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-84-1315-8.
Printed copies will be available on request from Antti Peuhkurinen: antti.peuhkurinen@helsinki.fi.