Histobery is a French tech company that has been showcasing the ‘Notre Dame Cathedral AR Exhibition’ world wide. For the past 10 years, they’ve been working on large-scale global projects that mix history, exhibitions, and technology.
Notre Dame is a hot topic in 2019, and with the inside currently closed to the general public, AR exhibitions are gaining popularity world wide. In Korea, the exhibition can also be being held on the National Palace Museum of Korea until September 1.
Bruno de Sa Moreira, CEO of Histoveri, visited Korea to coincide with the opening of the exhibition. He particularly drew attention by mentioning Admiral Yi Sun-sin as a representative figure of Korea and expressing his desire to realistically recreate his life through AR.
CEO Bruno said, “What makes AR exhibitions most different from regular exhibitions is that they visualize the coexistence of the current and the past.”
AR exhibitions are broadly divided into two types: ▲Fixed (everlasting) exhibitions centered on specific locations ▲Moving (world touring) exhibitions.
The everlasting exhibition provides a self-produced AR pad, ‘Histopad’, to specific museums, allowing visitors to benefit from the AR exhibition at any time.
Nonetheless, world tours resembling the Notre Dame Cathedral exhibition change the route and design composition in accordance with the characteristics of the space. As well as, settings which might be tailored to the local situation are added. In Korea, Samsung Electronics is participating as a sponsor and providing the ‘Galaxy Pad’.
Histobury Exhibition Introduction Video (Video = Histobury)
For domestic exhibitions, the route was constructed over a period of 15 days and the space design was accomplished. Here, it was stated that crucial thing was to maintain the flow of the exhibition alive. For instance, “For those who are including the lifetime of a historical figure, the route must be designed in order that visitors can follow the footsteps in chronological order.”
“There are a lot of things to contemplate, especially in historical exhibitions,” he said. “It is best to attempt to avoid history that has not passed long enough or that has left scars in your memory.” He identified that it can be crucial to strike a balance between preserving the visuals and never making them appear distorted.
He introduced that on this exhibition, he built a user experience (UX) and interface (UI) that enables users to directly compare the past and present appearances of historical sites by manipulating the pad. “Historical events are recreated in high-definition animation, and in the event you touch the characters, you may also see detailed explanations,” he said.
Breaking away from passive viewing, you possibly can directly manipulate the pad to achieve more information. It is usually said to be easy to access no matter age because it may be enjoyed with quite simple operations.
“This is feasible because we’ve got all of the technology required for the exhibition,” said CEO Bruno. “The response from actual visitors has also been very positive.”
Historic has actually done quite a lot of large-scale projects. The Notre Dame Cathedral exhibition is being held in 15 countries world wide. Before coming to Korea, it went to Paris, Washington, Shanghai, and Sao Paulo. The ‘D-Day’ exhibition, based on the Normandy landings, can also be being held in Washington.
Everlasting exhibitions are currently underway on the Royal Palace of Amboise, France, and the Albrechtsberg Palace in Germany, and discussions are underway with the Castle of Colditz in Germany.
On this context, CEO Bruno said that Admiral Yi Sun-sin could be very attractive. He said that he’s planning ideas resembling recreating actual events resembling the Battle of Myeongnyang, the Battle of Noryang, and the Battle of Hansando with realistic graphics, or specializing in his life. “It shouldn’t be yet on the stage of being realized because it requires support from local sponsors, but it surely is a project that I definitely need to try,” he said.
He also hinted at incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into the AR exhibition. “We’re currently considering incorporating a Large Language Model (LLM) to converse with historical figures within the pad,” he said. “It is going to be a difficult task as it’s going to should reflect the personality of the particular person, but I definitely have the desire to make it occur.”
Park Jin-ho, a research professor at Korea University who had a conversation with CEO Bruno, said, “Once I encountered the exhibition of Notre Dame Cathedral, a world-class mental property (IP) of France, I spotted how powerful the digital exhibition of cultural heritage is.” He added, “I stay up for a world-touring exhibition of prolonged reality (XR) content using Korean cultural heritage as the topic in the longer term.”
The Notre Dame Cathedral AR exhibition is out there without spending a dime on the National Palace Museum of Korea.
Reporter Jang Se-min semim99@aitimes.com
