AR Service Allows Users to Explore Deoksugung Palace
SK Telecom and Cultural Heritage Administration Deoksugung Palace Management Office announced on April 14 that they have pilot launched "AR Deoksugung," a service developed by applying the latest augmented reality (AR) technologies to the Korean cultural heritage Deoksugung Palace to enable users to virtually explore the place and experience diverse AR services.
Deoksugung Palace is one of the five royal palaces remaining in Seoul.
AR Deoksugung, offered both in Korean and English, can be accessed through the Jump AR app and offers 3D AR Map, which allows users to freely view 12 palace buildings via smartphones, and enjoy AR services such as AR Photo Zone and AR Selfie.
3D AR Map increases user convenience by offering information on palace buildings; recommending customized tour courses, including one for visitors with strollers or wheelchairs; and providing locations of amenities.
AR Photo Zone, located at four different places within the palace, allows users to have fun taking pictures with cute AR animals.
Users can also take fun selfies using filters that instantly turn them into a king, queen or Deoksugung royal guards.
SK Telecom applied diverse innovative AR technologies to develop AR Deoksugung.
To provide a realistic view of Deoksugung Palace, the company took a total of around 10,000 pictures of the site using a drone and multiple cameras, and created an identical 3D spatial model with eSpace and 3D photogrammetry technology.
SK Telecom’s eSpace is the world’s first 5G-based hyper-space platform that allows users to instantly create a digital twin of a particular space using 2D photos and share the resulting photo-realistic 3D virtual space with others. The 3D virtual space can be explored via AR/VR devices.
3D Photogrammetry is a technology that creates 3D models by analyzing photos of an object (space) taken from various degrees.
AR Deoksugung also uses real-time realistic rendering technology to allow users to view 3D Deoksugung from different viewpoints. Real-time realistic rendering technology realizes high-quality graphics for mobile devices through space partitioning rendering technology, which reconstructs the part of the 3D map the user is viewing on the screen, and LoD (Level of Detail) rendering technology, which provides 3D maps of different resolution depending on distance – i.e. low-resolution 3D map for distant views and high-resolution map for close-up views.
“AR Deoksugung has been built with advanced spatial recognition and AR technologies to enable users to experience the cultural heritage in a fun and convenient manner,” said Jeon Jin-soo, vice president and head of 5GX Service Business Group of SK Telecom. “SK Telecom will continue to develop advanced AR technologies and services to amaze our customers by travelling beyond time and bringing our history to life.”