SK Telecom realizes 3D cultural heritage on smartphones with AR technologies

Posted by SK Telecom

SK Telecom and Cultural Heritage Administration Deoksugung Palace Management Office announced 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.

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 that span across 61,205㎡ 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, users can 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, SK Telecom 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.

AR Deoksugung is also applied with real-time realistic rendering technology to allow users to view 3D Deoksugung from many 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.”

―CT Bureau