This innovative project sees the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre collaborate with Phygital Labs to digitally identify 10 artifacts from the Nguyen Dynasty housed within the Hue Royal Antiquities Museum. These digitally identified artifacts now form the cornerstone of the country's first metaverse cultural exhibition space, seamlessly integrated with Apple Vision Pro technology.

The Hue Monuments Conservation Centre, alongside the Thua Thien Hue Centre for Information Technology (Hue CIT), is spearheading the integration of technology into cultural heritage management.

This project equips 10 select Nguyen Dynasty artifacts with NFC chips and Phygital Labs' Nomion technology. Visitors can interact with these artifacts using their smartphones, unlocking a wealth of information. Gone are the days of static displays. These chips provide multidimensional experiences, offering detailed historical accounts, origins, cultural significance, and even 3D images.

The project also goes beyond mere interactivity. Nomion technology offers a significant advantage over traditional QR codes. It utilises encryption, safeguarding data and guarding against counterfeiting. This ensures a secure and unique 1-to-1 link between the physical artifact and its digital counterpart.

Additionally, Blockchain technology verifies ownership of the digital versions, creating valuable digital assets from real-world artifacts.

The meticulously chosen artifacts offer a captivating window into the Nguyen Dynasty. The collection includes a throne, a palanquin (a ceremonial carriage), royal slippers, decorative golden branches and jade leaves, and a set of xiangqi (a traditional Chinese board game).

Phygital Labs, with a vision to promote Vietnamese culture globally and leverage the potential of the digital heritage economy, has built the first metaverse cultural exhibition space at museehue.vn. This immersive platform allows users to explore the digitally identified artifacts in stunning 360-degree detail, transporting them to an authentic historical and cultural environment.

The exhibition space boasts integration with Apple Vision Pro, embracing the latest advancements in Extended Reality (XR) technology pioneered by Apple and Meta. This paves the way for the HMCC and Phygital Labs to offer metaverse museum tours, showcasing Vietnam's rich heritage to a global audience, particularly the over 20 million users of Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest devices worldwide.

The Hue Monuments Conservation Centre is committed to expanding its digital offerings. By scanning and photographing artifacts, it aims to create topic and time period-based digital museums. This will allow global visitors to experience the artifacts in a way that mirrors a physical museum visit, complete with layouts, colours, and even immersive sounds.

"The immersive experience offered by the digital exhibition presents an opportunity to generate revenue from a digital customer base currently lacking in engaging cultural and historical content”, said Nam Do, Director of Technology at Phygital Labs. "We envision selling tour tickets and certified replica artifacts, fostering not only global cultural awareness but also contributing to the development of Vietnam's cultural industry”.

This groundbreaking project exemplifies how innovative technology can be harnessed to preserve and disseminate cultural heritage, paving the way for a new digital economy model within the cultural sector./. VNA