Automatic and Creative Conversion of 2D Audiovisual Footage into Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Experiences

How can we develop innovative, accessible, and low-cost tools or techniques that enable exhibition firms to reuse and transform pre-existing audiovisual footage (such as documentary "raw" material, historical archives, or standard 2D productions) into immersive and interactive Virtual Reality (VR) environments or scenarios?

The challenge focuses on finding solutions that address the following key points:

1. Generating 3D Environments from 2D: Methods that use AI, simplified photogrammetry, or Machine Learning techniques to analyze standard footage (e.g., single-camera video recordings) and automatically reconstruct credible 3D environments or volumetric models that the user can explore in VR.

2. Integrating Footage as an Immersive Element: Novel techniques that allow embedding 2D footage (archival videos, interviews) within a VR space in a way that feels natural and enhances immersion, beyond simply projecting it onto a virtual screen.

3. Workflow for Non-Experts: Software tools that require a minimal learning curve and allow a content creator with no prior VR development experience to quickly build a "basic VR experience" (e.g., a scene or environment) from their source material.

4. Reducing Production Costs: Approaches that drastically lower the need for specific 360°/stereoscopic filming or manual 3D modeling time for each new exhibition production.

The ideal solution should enable exhibition companies to give a second life to their valuable audiovisual archive by transforming it into a high-value, immersive format with minimal time and resource investment.