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Bijoy Ghosh

Preserving the riches: Mr P. Anandan (left), Managing Director, Microsoft Research India, and Dr Richard F. Rashid, Senior Vice-President, Microsoft Research, at a press conference in Chennai on Wednesday. –

Our Bureau

Chennai, Oct. 1 India’s cultural heritage and monuments are to be presented (in an interactive way) and preserved virtually with the Department of Science and Technology, Academia and Microsoft Research coming together in a new venture.

The ‘India Digital Heritage Project’, which will create examples of 2D and 3D visualisations of Indian heritage, was unveiled on Wednesday at TechVista Chennai 2008, Microsoft Research India’s annual research symposium.

A 3D experience of Andal Temple in Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, has been created as the first example of the India Digital Heritage.

A demo feature includes a range of media-photographs, video and voice to provide unique experience for users.

It is like a walkthrough in the temple, Dr P. Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India, told newspersons.

In the last two months, a team of eight people were involved in collecting data from the temple. Around 6,000 pictures of the temple were taken and technology applications like Phototype, ICE and Movie Maker were used to make it an interactive visualisation of the temple.

“We have not yet decided the mode of making it available to the public,” he said.

The project consists of three major steps — data collection/archiving, research and creation of tools and technologies and creation of a compelling end-user experience.

The Andal Temple was selected since TechVista was happening in Chennai and the temple tower is the official logo of Tamil Nadu, he said. “It is a challenging job and we used technology to the maximum use,” he said.

Dr Anandan said the Department of Science and Technology has constituted a Project Advisory and Monitoring Committee chaired by Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras to evaluate, recommend for support and monitor various projects.

“We have not identified any further sites. They will be recommended by the committee,” he said.

Dr Richard F. Rashid, Senior Vice-President, Microsoft Research, said the company has been supporting this kind of projects globally, such as the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia. Microsoft, along with the academia, was also involved in a ‘worldwide telescopic’, a project on astronomy.

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