Kaleva 2030¶
We are Team “The Wieners”, a passionate group of innovators with diverse backgrounds in technology, business, and media. Our team consists of:
- Max Garcia Hinojosa (Team Leader)
- Emilia Kurttio (Business Expert)
- Marika Salo (Business Expert)
- Raisul Islam (Tech Lead)
- Nazmul Mahmud (Developer)
- Mubashar Ali (Research and Strategy)
In the news!¶
You can read more about the Kaleva 2030 Hackathon here:
Together, we are driven by the belief that virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are the future of media. Our project, KalevaConnectVR, seeks to push the boundaries of traditional media consumption and offer a unique, immersive experience.
Our team “The wieners”
Our Solution and Its Motivation¶
Our solution, KalevaConnectVR, is an innovative VR application that combines 360° images with AI-generated skyboxes to create an immersive and dynamic environment. The motivation behind this project stems from our desire to transform how people interact with media, moving beyond the static and passive consumption of content.
The idea is simple but revolutionary: we want to bring users into personalized, AI-generated environments where the experience evolves based on their preferences and input. This is a response to the increasing demand for more interactive and tailored media experiences. Through KalevaConnectVR, we aim to create a media consumption experience that feels personal, real-time, and fully immersive.
The Kaleva 2030 Hackathon¶
The Kaleva 2030 Hackathon, organized by Kaleva Media to celebrate its 125th anniversary, provided the perfect platform for our team to bring this vision to life. The event gathered diverse teams from universities across Northern Finland to explore the future of media and come up with innovative solutions.
We worked intensively over three days, refining our idea and developing a working prototype. Throughout the event, we received valuable feedback from mentors at Kaleva Media and industry experts, which helped us improve both the technical and business aspects of our project.
The Technical Aspects of KalevaConnectVR¶
Our solution, KalevaConnectVR, uses cutting-edge technologies to deliver a highly interactive and immersive VR experience. Here’s an overview of the technical components:
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Unity 2022.3.32f1: Unity provides the engine for creating immersive, interactive VR environments. We chose Unity for its powerful VR capabilities and flexibility.
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Google Cardboard SDK for Unity: By integrating Google Cardboard, we made our VR experience accessible to a wide audience with affordable hardware. This enables users to experience VR on Android devices with a simple setup.
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Blockade Labs AI Skybox Generator API: The core feature of our application is the dynamic AI-generated skyboxes that change in real time based on user prompts. We integrated the Blockade Labs API to bring this vision to life, offering personalized environments for each user.
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M2MqttUnity for MQTT Communication: To facilitate real-time updates and communication between the VR app and our server, we used M2MqttUnity. This MQTT client ensures that image prompts and AI-generated updates are instantly transmitted to the VR environment.
You can find the project code on GitLab here: - KalevaConnectVR GitLab Repository
Looking Forward: Our Next Steps¶
We believe that KalevaConnectVR has the potential to significantly impact the future of media consumption. Our work on this project is just the beginning, and we are committed to further developing and refining it. The next steps involve exploring additional features, enhancing user interactivity, and continuing to improve the AI algorithms behind the skybox generation. We also aim to collaborate with media houses and other stakeholders to bring this project to a wider audience.
We are excited about the possibilities and look forward to pushing the boundaries of what VR and AI can do for the media industry.