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

• The company launches ‘AR Deoksugung,’ an innovative AR service that allows users to virtually explore and learn about the cultural heritage
• AR Deoksugung offers 3D AR Map, which gives information on palace buildings, recommended tour courses and location of amenities
• AR Deoksugung is realized through the application of advanced AR technologies including eSpace, 3D photogrammetry and real-time realistic rendering technologies

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) 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.

* Deoksugung Palace is one of five royal palaces remaining in Seoul. Mainly built at the term of the 20th century, Deoksugung Palace is the smallest of Seoul’s palaces. The name Deoksugung Palace means “Palace of virtue and longevity” in the spirit of praying for long life for Emperor Gojong.

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.

* SK Telecom’s eSpace is the world’s first 5G-based hyper-space platform that allows users to instantly create a digital twin of a particular space using 2D photos and share the resulting photo-realistic 3D virtual space with others. The 3D virtual space can be explored via AR/VR devices.

** 3D Photogrammetry is a technology that creates 3D models by analyzing photos of an _object (space) taken from various degrees.

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.”