AR portraits at the XVI Book Salon at the Hermitage General Staff

Thanks to augmented reality technology implemented through the MARMA mobile app, readers were able to meet legendary personalities from different years face to face. Visitors included Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Aleksandr Beglov, Governor of St. Petersburg, and Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the Hermitage.

Event audience:

Residents and visitors to St Petersburg

Our challenges and solutions:

• Animating portraits using a neural network Static portraits of Saint Blessed Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky, outstanding Russian writer of the 19th century Fyodor Dostoevsky, and classic of 19th century Russian poetry Nikolay Nekrasov “talked” to the visitors with the help of a neural network.
• AR tags on portraits We have placed our AR tag on each exhibit. By downloading the MARMA app, visitors could point their smartphone camera at a portrait and animate its hero.