The government of South Korea’s capital city announced on Tuesday it would build an augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) platform aimed at providing immersive experiences to recreate government offices and historical traditions from the Joseon Dynasty, Yonhap news reported.
Seoul’s Metropolitan Government would partner with the Cultural Heritage Administration, Cheil Worldwide Inc, and Woomi Construction Corp via an agreement signed on Tuesday, it added.
The agreement is set to be revealed to the public in 2022.
The project would recreate digital twins of Joseon-era (1392 to 1910) munition offices banned in 1884 and allow visitors to view them on mobile devices.
Seoul’s government initiative would include further digital restorations of rituals performed at Gyeongbuk Palace such as banquets and meetings between kings and government aides, the article read.
The news comes just two years after a similar initiative, where the Seoul government digitally recreated the historical Donuimun city gate demolished by Japanese colonists from 1910 to 1945.
The Donuimun AR app will add the munitions office and Gyungbuk Palace rituals, the article added.
Cho In-Dong, Vice-Mayor of Seoul, said:
“We will continue to develop new forms of experience-based and touristic resources that combine history, technology and storytelling”
He added the government sought to allow its citizens to experience history and gain pride in its heritage.
Immersive Experiences Commissioned in Science, Art
The news comes as firms and organisations from several verticals in the AR/VR industry have launched projects aimed at creating digital twins for scientific as well as cultural purposes.
Qualcomm announced in a statement this month it was using digital twins to conduct network topology optimisations aimed at improving 5G network construction and designs.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence would work alongside the digital twins to visualise large data sets into charts to determine costs, performance benchmarks, and equipment assessments.
NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang also revealed in an April interview his company aimed to recreate numerous metaverses to build precise digital twins of cities such as New York City, Shanghai, and others.
He said at the time developers could design software to allow digital twins to interact seamlessly with physical enviroments such as cars, robots, airports, and buildings, among others.
The Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience event aimed to curate hundreds of works from the famous Dutch artist at an immersive cultural exhibit in London’s East End—one of the first of its kind.
Mario Iacampo, Chief Executive of the Exhibition Hub, told XR Today in June such VR and AR technologies could provide “fun and safe” ways to enjoy entertainment, adding visitors could experience Van Gogh’s paintings with a “new sense of understanding and appreciation of this masterful artist.”
