Naver Labs Unveils Kansong Art Museum VR Tour, Digitizing Cultural Heritage With Spatial Intelligence

Naver Labs and the Kansong Art and Cultural Foundation announced on the 11th that they will offer the "Kansong Art Museum VR Tour." Using spatial intelligence technology, Naver Labs created digital twins of the Kansong Art Museum's exhibition spaces and key holdings.

The "Kansong Art Museum VR Tour" is a service that lets users view the Kansong Art Museum's exhibition spaces and key holdings anytime, anywhere. Visitors can view the museum's interior and artifacts in VR on PC and mobile.

The VR tour covers the Kansong Art Museum exhibition space, "Bohwagak," and works included in the "Culture for the Nation" exhibition. Naver Labs and the Kansong Art and Cultural Foundation built digital twins of the works featured in "Bohwagak" and "Culture for the Nation," and users can explore the exhibition halls along the actual visitor route. They can also select any work they want and check detailed descriptions.

Previously, the Kansong Art Museum was only open to visitors during its regular spring and fall exhibition periods. With this service, users can now view key holdings regardless of exhibition period or location.

The Kansong Art Museum carried out 3D and VR implementation to digitally preserve artifacts that are not currently on site or are difficult to access. As part of digital spatial preservation for artifacts not held by the museum, it preserved 3D data for the "Qing Dynasty stone lion," which had long been placed at the museum's front gate and was donated to China last July. The museum also implemented "Goesan Palgakdang-type Buddha stupa" and "stone octagonal pagoda stupa" in VR. Both artifacts are located outdoors and are not easy to access.

In this process, Naver Labs' vision-based spatial intelligence technology was used in content production. With this technology, 3D mapping of spaces and objects is possible using only a smartphone camera, without specialized equipment such as ultra-high-precision scanners. This makes it possible to convert cultural heritage into digital data relatively easily.

Naver Labs previously applied its spatial intelligence technology to the AR navigation service at the National Museum of Korea. The same family of spatial intelligence technology was also applied to Naver Map's "Flying View 3D." "Flying View 3D" uses "novel view synthesis (NVS)" technology, which reconstructs a 3D scene from viewpoints that were not photographed based on a few photos. The company plans to expand the use of digital twin, indoor positioning, and 3D reconstruction technologies into cultural spaces and heritage preservation.

Meanwhile, the Kansong Art Museum is holding a photo contest through the 23rd. The company and the museum plan to reflect entries from the photo contest in the VR tour. Through this, users will be able to enjoy their own photos as if they were museum artworks.

Lee Dong-hwan, head of Naver Labs' Vision Group, explained the significance of using Naver Labs' spatial intelligence technology to realize the Kansong Art Museum's precious cultural heritage in digital space. He said that, following the earlier example of the National Museum of Korea, this implementation has made it possible for anyone to appreciate it without time or location constraints. He added that the company will continue to advance spatial intelligence technologies such as digital twins, positioning, and 3D reconstruction to connect the digital and physical worlds of spaces and objects, while aiming to create new cultural experiences.

Source: TECHWORLD · Kim Seung-gi
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406837

References

• https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406837