Cloud, AI technologies sought for digitizing Palace Museum collection

The Palace Museum and Tencent have agreed to team up for digitizing relics in the museum and carrying out cultural research through information technology, including cloud and artificial intelligence.

Both sides have entered into an agreement that foresees their stepped-up strategic cooperation for building a "Digital Palace Museum" in the next three years, according to a statement by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

More funding and technology support will be delivered to the digitization of the Palace Museum collection under the deal, which will also see joint research on the capture, storage and demonstration of relic information in digital forms.

It is estimated that high-definition images will be captured for around 100,000 relics as a result of the cooperation, facilitating the establishment of standards concerning the digitizing sectors, according to the statement.

Having achieved initial results in digitizing its collection over the past 20 years, the Palace Museum, which was home to emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties, needs to work with more partners for further promoting "Digital Palace Museum," the statement said.