AR brings museum collections to life

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-09-10 17:16

The augmented reality (AR) technology in Chongqing's Zhongzhou Museum stunned journalists from China's key network media outlets on Sept 13.

Zhongzhou Museum in Chongqing has more than 20,000 cultural relics. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

The museum has more than 20,000 cultural relics and displayed over 2,000 of them. Among the exhibits, there were nine silver ingots from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) which were donated by a local villager named Le Bangzhu.

There are ten treasures in the museum, including the magnificent Donghan glazed pottery, a rare copper coin from the Southern Song Dynasty and a printed yellow glazed porcelain bowl from the Qing Dynasty, all of which impressed visitors.

Visitors can see stereoscopic images of the artifacts and listen to detailed explanations by wearing glasses with built-in AR and scanning the artifacts. The AR technology has been used for 94 cultural relics in the museum.

An employee at the museum said that the AR display system is much more engaging and educational than traditional human-computer interaction systems at other museums.

The intelligent AR display system uses the application of augmented reality technology in the museum's display system as a carrier, and uses mobile terminals such as smart glasses to superimpose the related multimedia information during the actual tour. It is a new mode for museums to display exhibits.

The AR display system in Chongqing's Zhongzhou Museum restores the original appearance of the ancient city wall. [Photo provided to Chinadaily.com.cn]

In the future, the museum will develop 3D interactive special effects and related AR adventure games for young people and develop customized interactive guide routes for senior visitors to further enrich their experience.

In order to better show the world’s historical relics and intangible cultural heritage, the museum is stepping up the construction of a digital museum, which will bring the cultural relics to life through virtual reality, panoramas and other technologies.