Editor’s note – December 1, 2021 – This version has been updated to mention A_DA.
OLYMPIA, Greece — November 10, 2021 — The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday Ancient Olympia: Common Grounds, a new collaboration to digitally preserve and restore ancient Olympia, the original home of the Olympic Games, using AI. This digital renaissance project allows viewers around the world to explore ancient Olympia as it was over 2,000 years ago through an immersive experience via an interactive mobile app, web-based desktop experience or a Microsoft HoloLens 2 exhibition at the Athens Olympic Museum.
The digital preservation of ancient Olympia allows visitors to walk the site during one of the most important periods in history, bringing it to life in a realistic and engaging way that was never possible before. This new form of digital archiving will continue to provide a portal to another era, helping us understand what humanity has accomplished in the past and reminding us of what we are capable of today.
“Ancient Olympia: Common Grounds is a unique way to experience Greece’s proud cultural heritage. Visitors from around the world can virtually visit the ancient site of Olympia and experience history through augmented reality technology,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece.
“The Ancient Olympia Digital Preservation Project is an astonishing achievement in cultural heritage, bringing together humanity and cutting-edge technology for the benefit of the world and enabling new ways for future generations to explore our past,” he said. said Brad Smith, president and vice president of Microsoft.
“With the digital representation of the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Ancient Olympia, its cultural heritage – but also the values of Olympism, peace, harmony, excellence and noble rivalry – becomes accessible to the world entire thanks to the use of cutting-edge tools. technology. The digital preservation project, through the use of artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies, implemented through the cultural sponsorship of Microsoft, promotes and highlights the unique and iconic archaeological site of ancient Olympia . This contributes to the research and documentation of monuments, supports tourism and the extroversion of the country as a modern and strong democracy with a long historical and cultural past and an undeniable development dynamic,” said Lina Mendoni, Minister of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic.
“We thank the Greek government for the trust and tremendous partnership it took to make this project a reality. I look forward to exploring the different ways we can work together to further leverage common grounds to strengthen tourism, education and Greece’s brand to the rest of the world,” said Theodosis Michalopoulos , Managing Director of Microsoft Greece, Cyprus and Malta.
In total, the project digitally preserves 27 monuments on the site, including the original Olympic stadium, the temples of Zeus and Hera and the workshop of the famous sculptor Phidias. In the 3D experience, these buildings are recreated in realistic detail, painstakingly studied by the Hellenic Ministry’s expert archaeologists to be as true to their original forms as possible. This includes historical timelines of changes to the site over time and depictions of artifacts from each period.
Through its AI for Cultural Heritage initiative, Microsoft partnered with technology company Iconem, which specializes in 3D scanning of historic sites, to create the founding model of ancient Olympia. Ground cameras and drones were used to take hundreds of thousands of images of the site, which Microsoft AI processed to create models so precise they made them photorealistic, then worked with A_DA, a photo agency. innovation and experience design, to develop interactive experiences through the immersive website, the AR application and the HoloLens experience.
The collaboration between the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports and Microsoft brought together people from diverse backgrounds – theoretical and technical, like archaeologists and developers – and from various regions of the world to work, finding new ways to overcome challenges. challenges and finally find common agreement. field to bring this project to life – not only to preserve the past through the use of AI technology, but also to propel these principles into the future.
These monuments have survived thousands of years of weathering, war, earthquakes and modernization, and are in need of digital preservation to ensure that all evidence of the rich history and shared civic values on which the site was built be passed on to future generations.
The web experience can be viewed at olympiacommongrounds.grand the application can be downloaded on the iOS and Android app stores.
The Ancient Olympia: Common Grounds exhibition, featuring the HoloLens 2 virtual tour, is now open to the public at the Olympic Museum in Athens.
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