CHENNAI: What if you could take a trip to the famous Madurai Meenakshi temple from wherever you are? At the click of a button, several historical sites and monuments will soon be open for a virtual tour. An initiative that has been in the works for more than six years will see fuition with the launch of the India Digital Heritage (IDH) web portal. Slated to go live this December, the platform has multiple features that aim to bring cultural tourism to the fore.
The immersive website will use digital capturing tools like 3D laser scanning of the real artefacts and sites and recreate it on a screen for the viewer. For instance, the Vithala temple at Hampi, Karnataka has the unique distinction of producing a different musical note when each of its pillars are struck by hand. But the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has banned visitors from touching the pillars as it is classified as a ‘sensitive’ monument. The IDH web platform will provide the virtual experience when the pillars are struck.
“The audio detailing has been recorded from site, and is being fed to the website,” said Vijay Chandru, co-founder of the International Institute for Art Culture and Democracy. On Friday, Chandru at a presentation at Anna University detailed the digital architecture of the IDH project. The portal will also feature corrected and digitally remastered version of temples inscriptions, murals and sculptures that have been damaged in-situ.
Source: The Times of India City
