18 Aug Digital Statue of Grigor Prlichev by Professor Anis Sefidanis of UIST
PRLICHEV
A smart monument, blending Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence into a futuristic user experience. Resurrecting the Second Homer through state of the art technologies, allows us to explore history and culture in an unmediated interaction with the poet’s digital consciousness
Grigor Prlichev
Grigor Stavrev Prlichev was born January 18, 1830 in Ohrid. In the 1850s he worked as a teacher in the towns of Tirana, Prilep and Ohrid. In 1858 Prlichev started studying medicine in Athens but transferred to the Faculty of Linguistics in 1860. The same year he took part in the annual poetic competition in Athens winning first prize for his poem “The Serdar”. Acclaimed as the “Second Homer”, he was offered scholarships to the universities at Oxford and Berlin. Grigor Prlicev is regarded as a founding figure of the literature of the later standardized Macedonian language. He died in Ohrid on February 6, 1893. The Project Using state of the art holographic technology, we have created a 360° true color depth video display. The virtual scene is enhanced both by the perfect curvature of the surround screen, as well as the spatial 3D audio acoustics. The led illumination allows the virtual objects to be available to the viewer, equally in and outdoor, at night and during a sunny day. A real-time interaction with the users is enabled through a speech recognition system for the Macedonian language. The voice signals are processed with an advanced NLP, where as a response a personalized virtual scene is generated. The scenes contain a highly realistic render of a lifelike avatar representing Grigor Prlichev, as well as speech that embodies the verses and emotions of the poet. For the virtual model of the character we used original photos and various sculptures by applying advanced machine intelligence methods for digital photogrammetry
Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanities, as well as the analysis of their application. DH can be defined as new ways of creating monuments and sharing cultural heritage. As a City of Unesco, Ohrid needs DH applications which will enable conservation of the cultural heritage both in the physical world and the met averse. These technologies can further boost the promotion of the country and offer a unique tourist experience. Anis Sefidanis, PhD Sefidanis Institute of Exponential Technologies Ohrid, June 2022
