The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, announced that the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris will get its own digital double — a project implemented with the use of image processing technologies and artificial intelligence. It will be part of a large-scale initiative to preserve France’s cultural heritage, informs Euronews.
Smith pointed out that physically rebuilding Notre Dame after the fire took five years, while creating a digital model is a less complicated process. He confirmed that this initiative is already being implemented: the historical cathedral, built in 1345, will soon have its virtual copy.
The goal of the project is to preserve the smallest architectural, historical and symbolic details of the building in order to ensure their availability for future generations. The digital model will be transferred to the French side – it can be used by the cultural heritage protection services and displayed in the Notre Dame de Paris museum, which is scheduled to open in the future.
In addition, the initiative will digitize millions of artifacts from France’s leading cultural institutions. In particular, we are talking about historical theater sets and more than 15,000 cinematographic models that were used in performances of the Paris National Opera between 1800 and 1914.
Although the exact cost and timeline for the completion of the project have not yet been made public, Smith told French journalists that the implementation will take at least a year and will require several million dollars. Microsoft plans to make digitized collections as accessible as possible by creating an interactive user experience on its own digital platform.
We will remind you that in April 2019, a large-scale fire broke out in the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which destroyed the spire, the wooden roof and part of the vaults. After a five-year restoration, the historic shrine was reopened to the public — leaders from 40 countries were present at the ceremony, and more than 800,000 people visited the renovated cathedral in the first month alone.
