Creative AI Sandbox: expansion Immersive Lab

With this VLAIO funding, the Immersive Lab (AP University of Applied Sciences) will establish a Creative AI Sandbox, this stimulates state-of-the-art AI production workflows, creating traditional audiovisual and immersive content with low-threshold AI tools. This expansion will allow the Immersive Lab to continue its R&D function for the creative sector (media, production houses, design and eXtended Reality) and come up with low-threshold solutions for labor-intensive production workflows.  Through an extensive field survey of the Flemish creative sector, urgent needs and thresholds that prevent the implementation of generative AI in their organization were identified. The Flemish creative industry wants to implement revolutionary generative AI technologies - such as text-to-image / text-tovideo (=converting text prompts into photo/video), real-time AI, NeRFs (=converting 2D photos into 3D objects) and AI motion capture - and thus play a pioneering role on an international level. 

We are not going to train ML algorithms from stratch ourselves, but through various research projects, such as Creative AI (HBC.2023.0063) and Proeftuin Media XR&5G (HBC.2020.2561), we want to provide useful knowledge and tools. The main barriers: due to rapid technological evolutions, lack of R&D departments and expensive state-ofthe-art infrastructure (such as GPU computing power, HQ cameras and mocap suits), Flemish SMEs are unable to test these qualitatively diverse AI applications themselves in depth and assess their added value for innovative and more efficient production workflows that are less labor intensive.