The Idol Wing-CID of Tamil Nadu Police has built a virtual museum containing 374 idols to conserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of the state.
There are 374 idols in the Idol Wing, comprising of 36 metal, 265 stone, and 73 wooden artefacts. For safekeeping, the idols and artefacts have been moved to icon centres at Thiruvottriyur, Kumbakonam, and the Government Museum in Egmore.
With the support of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the Idol Wing has captured 3D images of all the idols using virtual reality and augmented reality cameras. The photos can be seen at http://www.tnidols.com/.
K. Jayanth Murali, Additional Director-General of Police, Idol Wing-CID, said, ‘We have created a virtual museum with the object of helping the connoisseurs of art and culture and members of the public view and appreciate the ancient cultural treasures available with us. We aim to turn the virtual museum into a metaverse where visitors can interact in 3D cyberspace’.
Also Read: Andhra Pradesh CM formally ‘affiliated’ INS Visakhapatnam to City of Destiny
Murali further added, ‘We further wish to propose to the Tamil Nadu government, which has physical ownership of the idols, to sell the digitised versions of the idols of the museum, barring the idols of the temples as NFTs ( Non-Fungible Tokens)’.
Professor M. Manivannan, a specialist in virtual reality and haptics at IIT Madras, Shankara Narayanan, a PhD scholar at IIT’s Department of Computer Science, and Premnath of Invent Softlabs Chennai collaborated on the virtual museum.
IIT Madras is working with the Idol Wing on this project. Artificial intelligence will also aid in the identification of the idol’s period.
Post Your Comments