The Military History Museum has been captured using 360-degree cameras and uploaded to a digital platform, allowing remote visitors to experience certain areas online.
The 360-degree image interface of the Military History Museum. (Video: TH).
The “virtualization” product of the Military History Museum was introduced by the YooLife platform coinciding with the museum’s official opening on November 1.
Users can choose areas to view from the entrance to exhibition zones and utilize a mouse or touchscreen to rotate 360 degrees. In each area, directional arrows will appear, allowing users to select their tour direction, similar to the experience of visiting a physical museum.
Users can also click on artifacts to view explanatory information. According to the development team, they have recreated about 50 locations in the museum, along with over 700 artifacts. Additionally, a unique feature of the digital platform is that locations and artifacts are listed for quick access to the desired viewing area.
Mr. Nguyễn Mạnh Tùng, founder of the open digital platform YooLife, stated that this unit specializes in IoT solutions and already had tools for “virtualization” using 360-degree images, which had been utilized in many large projects. They completed the museum virtualization in one day.
He recounted that while participating in some construction tasks at the museum, he wished to contribute to bringing this experience online so that those who have not had the opportunity to visit in person could also enjoy it, with the museum’s permission.
The development team has recreated about 50 locations in the museum, along with over 700 artifacts.
“Although it cannot yet replicate the feeling of reality, this method can help people visualize the location and somewhat experience the sensation of touring,” Mr. Tùng said.
To fully recreate the museum, the team chose to conduct the recording just before the official opening date, when the museum was completed for filming. The equipment used was an Insta360 camera, capable of capturing 360 degrees, meaning the entire scene in all directions in one shot. From 300 photos taken in 300 different locations, the team selected the 50 most representative sites to upload to the platform.
According to Minh Khánh, one of the participants in the digitization project, the challenge was to film within a short timeframe and then arrange the photos in accordance with the actual movement journey, as the museum has a large area with hundreds of thousands of displayed artifacts. Subsequently, in the exhibition areas, they would attach information about the artifacts to the photos. “Since we had a previous virtualization platform, we did not encounter many difficulties and only needed about a day to recreate,” Khánh stated.
Minh Khánh with the Insta360 X4 camera used for panoramic filming. (Photo: Lưu Quý)
Mr. Tùng noted that unlike other forms of representation through photos and videos, 360-degree images allow users to better perceive the space, thus creating a more realistic feeling. Moreover, thanks to the self-developed platform, they can customize features, such as adding information to the images. For example, when viewers see a specific artifact they want to learn more about, they can click on it for additional information. Due to time constraints, the team has currently only digitized about 700 artifacts in this manner.
A representative from YooLife also assessed that the 360-degree photo solution is not new, but previously faced challenges such as requiring specialized equipment for photography or necessitating VR glasses for the experience. However, nowadays, users can create their own 360-degree images using the panorama feature on smartphones and experience it directly on computer or mobile screens.
Furthermore, Mr. Tùng mentioned that with the implementation of 5G networks in Vietnam, mobile users no longer face difficulties in downloading 360-degree image data from mobile devices. In the near future, the team plans to build a social network for 360-degree images, enabling users to share such content, while also expanding into other fields such as education and culture to leverage the advantages of 360-degree imagery.
The Vietnam Military History Museum opened on November 1 at Thang Long Avenue, located in the two wards of Tây Mỗ and Đại Mỗ, Nam Từ Liêm District, Hanoi. The museum was constructed by the Ministry of National Defense since 2019, covering an area of 386,600 square meters, highlighted by the 45-meter-tall Victory Tower in the front yard. The main building has four floors above ground and one ground floor. The total investment for the project is approximately 2.5 trillion VND. |
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