Kim Lien Relic Site promotes digital transformation to serve visitors

More vibrant thanks to digital transformation

From December 2022, the Hoang Thi Loan Tomb (Kim Lien Relic Site) officially put into operation a touch screen application to serve visitors. Specifically, there are 2 electronic screens placed in the Artifact Exhibition House and the Tomb Area. Interacting with the screens, visitors can learn and explore all information and images about the tomb on the electronic screen thanks to 360-degree VR technology and augmented reality AR technology.

Images from 360-degree VR and AR technology have accurately reproduced 100% of the real space of the tomb. Thereby, visitors can observe the entire tomb right at the Exhibition House or the tomb, observe all the documents, images and artifacts associated with President Ho Chi Minh's childhood in the most vivid way without having to move and search.

Through clicking and touching, visitors can move to many different locations and areas in the panoramic space of the Relic Site; as well as admire the scenery here from many angles; can choose between moving along the footprints like a real-life experience, moving and exploring each area or can choose to move to the desired area via the map integrated right on the display screen.

Touch screen application serving tourists at Kim Lien relic site. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Chi - Head of the Management Board of Ba Hoang Thi Loan Tomb shared: With this application, visitors can also download the application or scan the QR code to visit the relic site right on their smartphone instead of having to travel directly for hours to the tourist destination as before. After a period of experience, this application has contributed positively to the effectiveness of visitors' visits, bringing vivid experiences of information about the relic, virtual space experiences, ... creating special emotions when visiting.

Similarly, the touch screen application is also deployed at Kim Lien Relic Site. In addition to images from 360-degree VR and AR technology, the screen also contains a “huge treasure” with over 10,224 extremely valuable document image files. In addition to being able to look up directly on the screen, visitors can also download the application or scan the QR code to “bring the relic home” for further research.

Ms. Phan Thi Quy - Deputy Head of the Interpretation Department, Kim Lien Relic Site said: With the support of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City, the Relic Site has digitized documents and artifacts into digital signals that computers can understand and store. Digitization not only helps the Relic Site better manage, search, and retrieve documents, but also helps visitors to update documents and images of artifacts associated with President Ho Chi Minh's childhood.

Through clicking and touching, visitors can move to many different locations and areas in the panoramic space of the Relic Site. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

The combination of digital technology in the work of preserving and promoting the value of relics has made the artifacts of Kim Lien Relic Site more vivid; making a good impression on visitors. Mr. Tran Quoc Hung, from Hung Yen province, on his third visit to Uncle Ho's hometown, expressed: "These new, intuitive and vivid applications bring a space that is both strange and familiar, making old places that seem familiar now become new, stimulating curiosity and exploration of historical stories. And it is these new applications that have helped us know more about Uncle Ho's beloved homeland."

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According to Mr. Nguyen Bao Tuan - Director of Kim Lien Relic Site: After more than half a century of operation, the Relic Site has collected and preserved thousands of artifacts related to President Ho Chi Minh. These are all extremely valuable heritages and documents to serve both visitors and for reference and research purposes. However, due to the nature of the site, conservation work has encountered many difficulties in the past.

In that context, digitalization and gradual digital transformation are considered a suitable and inevitable direction, an important step forward to both do a good job of preserving and further promoting heritage, and bring about positive changes in promoting the image of Nghe An to the public; serving domestic and foreign tourists to visit and learn about Uncle Ho's childhood.

Specifically, from 2019 to now, Kim Lien National Special Relic Site has made great efforts to apply technology to exhibition activities, launching many programs and products applying technology, creating high efficiency. Among them, it is necessary to mention the digitization of relic documents and artifacts, touch screen applications, automatic explanation systems... initially creating great appeal, attracting the attention of many tourists, especially young people.

Digital transformation brings positive changes in promoting Nghe An's image to the public. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Mr. Nguyen Bao Tuan added: Currently, Kim Lien Relic Site is gradually building an automatic explanation system to help visitors easily look up information when visiting. The automatic explanation application helps visitors proactively learn about the information displayed through technology applications. Scenic spots, historical sites, museums, etc. are systematized, providing explanation content with multimedia content such as images, sounds, 3D space to provide visitors with more complete and intuitive information.

This is a multimedia communication, interaction, and information retrieval application serving tourists with outstanding features such as: Using a modern digital transformation technology application platform; an automatic commentary application built on multiple platforms on tablets and phones, running stably on both IOS and Android operating systems, and can operate independently even without mobile signal; multilingual, multi-content, allowing tourists to find information and listen to commentary in their native language; integrating many useful features for tourists; storing data for monitoring and evaluation.

Kim Lien Relic Site has been trying to integrate many useful features for visitors, helping them proactively learn about the information displayed through technology applications. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

At the same time, this application also has extremely modern and easy-to-use features such as: Automatic explanation - QR code scanning, image recognition, artifacts, locations in 3D space... The application platform also allows multilingual deployment with each explanation content introducing the location; unlimited language support for international visitors; artificial intelligence (AI) application, guidance, assistance for visitors to ask and answer questions by voice; the application's response data is completely automatic...

However, the automatic guide system is not intended to replace human guides and will only be applied during times when there are too many tourists; deployed in suitable locations. In addition, visitors can scan the code and learn about the location through the automatic guide application; can look up in-depth information about the location such as images, historical documents, articles, reviews, and research - Mr. Tuan clearly stated.