ETRI leads standardization for ‘Cultural Heritage Digital Sovereignty’

Korean researchers are advancing efforts to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to cultural heritage, with expectations that Korea’s digital ICT standard technologies will expand to cultural heritage sites across Asia and globally.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced that it has been conducting digital standardization research and development since 2020 in collaboration with the National Museum of Korea, Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, Chung-Ang University, LiST Co., Ltd., and the Technology Research Institute for Culture & Heritage to secure technological sovereignty in the digital field of cultural heritage in the era of AI.

In particular, the National Museum of Korea is a world-class museum, ranked 6th in the world and 1st in Asia in terms of number of visitors as of 2023. ETRI's technology development efforts for cultural resources in museums have been ongoing with the goal of coexistence and sustainability of culture and technology. ETRI's technology development will be carried out in three phases, with the second phase of research currently underway.

The first phase, which began in 2020 and lasted for three years, was the “Laying the Foundation for Intelligent Curation”phase, which developed a curation platform and operational technology to intelligently utilize the museum's digital data. Based on high-quality Pensive Bodhisattva assets, various use cases have been created, including ▲ a “spatial five senses” exhibition for people with low vision, ▲ a media wall at Incheon International Airport (27 meters), and ▲ miniature Pensive Bodhisattva that led to the "MU:DS craze.”

Phase 2, which runs from 2023 to 2025, aims to “publish digital standards guidelines” and “develop an intelligent cultural heritage sharing platform”. A key achievement is the publication of the “Cultural Heritage Digital Asset Standard Guidelines 2024” with the National Museum of Korea and the Technology Research Institute for Culture & Heritage.

In addition, ETRI is participating in the work of “Standardization for Maintaining the Quality of Cultural Heritage Digital Data Creation” in cooperation with the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea, aiming to enact it within the year, and is contributing to the systematic management and increased utilization of high-quality digital data. The promotion of ISO international standards is expected to enhance the international usability and compatibility of museum digital cultural heritage and to strengthen the competitiveness of K-content and the digital industries.

The third and final phase, starting in 2026, is the “European diffusion and alignment with international standards” phase. ETRI plans to apply the previously developed technology to major European museums and cultural heritage to promote the dissemination of global digital standards.

Based on locally acquired European cultural heritage data, AR/VR content will be produced to create an environment where cultural heritage can be enjoyed without the constraints of time and space. It is also working on a proposal for the EU Horizon project, and if the project is adopted, it plans to ensure consistency with international standards such as the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) and the Europeana Data Model (EDM) to enhance interoperability and shared usability.

ETRI is also currently developing key AI-powered technologies to enhance the utilization of digital cultural heritage. For example, it has established a multimodal content platform that integrates image, text, and 3D data for utilization, and developed technology to automatically generate metadata for AI training.

In addition, it has accumulated various research achievements such as ▲ cultural property database modeling ▲ automatic digital transformation technology for traditional cultural heritage ▲ standardization of ultra-high-resolution digital assets ▲ AI-powered quality improvement technology ▲ text mining-based knowledge relationship network generation ▲ visualization skill based on data fabric.

These R&D results can be utilized not only by museums but also by art galleries and libraries that produce digital assets, and currently, it is planning to transfer the technology to libraries.

ETRI and the National Museum of Korea will showcase the integrated platform and key achievements of their years of research and development for the first time to the public at the “2025 Museum and Art Gallery Expo”, held at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju for four days starting September 4th.

Choi Seung Ae, Senior Curator of the Digital Museum Division, National Museum of Korea said, “The National Museum of Korea has steadily accumulated achievements in the convergence of technology fields with the goal of coexisting and sustaining culture and technology. We will continue to lead the way in data standardization in the midst of digital transformation and take a step forward toward the future of K-Museum.”

Lee Jae Ho, Principal Researcher of ETRI's Content Convergence Research Section, said, "As a government-funded research institute, we are faithfully fulfilling our public role by leading technological standards in the field of cultural heritage digitalization and connecting them to global expansion. For the continued development of cultural and AI convergence technologies, strategic attention and support from the government and relevant authorities are required.”

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This achievement was researched and developed as part of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's “Development of Intelligent Heritage Platform for Leading of Standardization on Digital Cultural Heritage” project.