The next time you walk into Golconda Fort and wish to quietly enjoy your walk through, but keen on knowing some details of the edifice at the same time, you need not depend on anyone for the information.
All you have to do is to scan the object of your interest using the mobile phone and the story behind it will enfold on the screen with images. This would soon be possible with a digital heritage project being worked on by the students of IIIT-Hyderabad.
“The aim of the project is to digitise information related to monuments so that it’s easily accessible to people. We focus on using machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing to deliver this information in an effective manner,” said C.V. Jawahar, a professor at IIIT-H.
Until now, the team working on the project has focused on recognising a monument to describe it to a user. This is being done using either a user’s camera or his/her GPS sensor and at a completely off-line manner since most of these heritage sites exist in regions with poor internet connectivity.
The team has also been exploring mechanisms to effectively tell users a story as they walk around the heritage site. Interestingly, these stories are being tailored to users’ interests and according to age groups as their perception of a monument differs.
For instance, a child would get different stories of a monument when compared to an adult and an aficionado of architecture would have a different version of the same story from a novice.
The idea doesn’t stop there and the team wants to interactively engage people using cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality. Another historical site in the State would also be added to the project and once the final product is out, they expect more demand.
