The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) is reviving Korea's historical culture by digitally transforming Korea's world-class cultural heritage using artificial intelligence (AI).

Since 2020, ETRI and the National Museum of Korea have been collaborating to develop and verify core technologies for the digital transformation of Korea's cultural heritage as part of a research and development project of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The two organizations have been developing an intelligent heritage platform and conducting basic technology research to improve the quality and usability of museum data by applying artificial intelligence technology and to manage and utilize new types of data for various environments and purposes.

ETRI has been working on data analysis technology and standardization of cultural heritage based on artificial intelligence.

Representative examples include: △data fabric-based archives, △AI-based cultural heritage analysis, △digital heritage standards, △generative AI-based data expansion, and △sharing of diverse demand source platforms.

Based on the above technology, the research team has created an intelligent digital heritage sharing platform and has been working on △museum artifact management △cultural heritage conservation research △immersive realistic content △interactive cultural heritage education, etc.

The digital heritage sharing platform under development utilizes data fabric technology based on artificial intelligence technology to enable immediate use of a variety of digital cultural heritage data types that are steadily increasing in museums.By making this possible, we aim to achieve world-class usability.

The two organizations have established a digital standard process for cultural heritage, starting with high-quality digitalization of cultural heritage through joint development of cultural heritage-related technologies over the past four years.

In addition, we are working to share and disseminate the information to related industries and schools, including the Cultural Heritage Technology Research Institute, List Co., Ltd., Chung-Ang University, and Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, which are joint research institutes.

Based on the digital standard technology developed last year by the ETRI research team, the National Museum of Korea and the Cultural Heritage Technology Research Institute have built digital content for the national treasure Bangasayusang at the Millennium Hall in Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport.

Last year, this work won an award in the public branding category of the German IF Design Award, one of the world's top three design awards.

In addition, the National Museum of Korea's Lifetime Map content has implemented world-class high-quality cultural heritage content, winning awards such as the Red Dot Award last year.

The research team is using ultra-high-resolution digital asset data as digital Gwanggaeto Stele content in the ‘Road of History’, the central lobby of the National Museum of Korea.

In addition, we are producing world-class results in the digitalization of cultural heritage, such as conducting a joint exhibition of cultural heritage immersive content with the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States.

The foundation that enabled the research team to achieve these results was supported by the following: △improvement of the quality of cultural heritage digital data, △development of technology to visualize cultural heritage relationship networks, and △text mining technology to create cultural heritage knowledge-based relationships.

It includes research on the development of artificial intelligence application technology specialized in cultural heritage and research on the creation and utilization of cultural heritage assets.

In particular, the collaboration model between the two institutions is a digital cultural heritage in museums, including preservation, exhibition, education, archives, and open storage. We are sharing concerns from the field about the scope of data utilization and current issues.

Digital transformation will be completed only when a platform is built that allows for extensive search of cultural heritage information and data based on such digitalization and easy use and sharing in the lives of citizens.

In addition to this, ETRI has also developed numerous cutting-edge studies, including cultural property database modeling, AI-based automatic digital conversion of traditional cultural heritage data, and research on standardization of ultra-high-resolution digital cultural heritage assets.

Lee Tae-hee, a researcher at the National Museum of Korea, said, “I hope that this collaboration between our two representative institutions in the fields of cultural heritage and cutting-edge technology will continue in the long term and serve as a catalyst for the development of artificial intelligence technology and utilization models that can be utilized in the specialized field of Korea’s cultural heritage.”

ETRI Content Convergence Research Lab Senior Researcher Lee Jae-ho also said, “The numerous digital works on cultural heritage data at the National Museum of Korea can be considered the starting point of the digital transformation of Korea. The two organizations have been preparing to digitize information related to heritage, such as descriptions of the characteristics of each cultural heritage, related materials, and relationships with other heritages.”

ETRI explained that the data fabric field, which it is taking on a new challenge this year, is challenging and innovative in a global context in the era of digital transformation, and could be a good opportunity to gain an advantage in international technological competitiveness.

This technology was developed as a result of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s project of “Development of Intelligent Heritage Sharing Platform Technology to Lead Cultural Heritage Digital Standards.”