Turkish university opens AI-powered Mehmet Akif Ersoy Museum

Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University students have developed an AI-powered museum featuring a 3D visualization of Mehmet Akif Ersoy, allowing visitors to interact with the poet and explore his life, works, and insights on various topics through conversation

The artificial intelligence-supported Mehmet Akif Ersoy Museum, created by students at Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (MAKU) in Türkiye, opened to visitors.

Visitors to the museum, which was opened in the rectorate building of the university, have the opportunity to chat with a 3D visual of the ‘poet of independence,’ Mehmet Akif Ersoy, prepared with artificial intelligence technology and can ask questions they are curious about.

Ersoy’s books and poems are also on exhibit in the museum, which includes special photographs of Ersoy and his family. In addition, visitors to the museum can listen to different compositions of the National Anthem.

MAKU Faculty of Art and Design Lecturer Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Kara, who integrated the museum with students, told journalists that they created an area to convey the national and spiritual personality of poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy to visitors.

Stating that part of the museum includes Akif’s life story and his family, Kara said, “We also included a poem written by Ersoy to his grandson. There are also sections of the National Anthem and Safahat.”

Stating that they created Akif’s character supported by artificial intelligence, Kara said:

“We wanted people to hear what they wondered directly from Mehmet Akif’s mouth. It is a character that can talk to visitors in the form of mutual question and answer, and it even constantly updates itself by learning. We do not have a voice recording of Akif, so we made the sound design with our imagination while modeling the character. You can communicate with him by pressing a key on the keyboard below the character. He listens to you, then constructs the answers to the questions you ask in his head in a few seconds and improvises answers with different words each time. He frankly expresses his opinions on current and historical issues, the emotions he felt while writing Safahat, the National Anthem and other poems. He gives generalized answers on political issues.”

Furkan Koroglu, a 4th year student in the Department of Visual Communication and Design, who took part in the creation of the museum piece, said they worked diligently to achieve realistic facial features of Ersoy.

Koroglu stated that he used the wax sculpture at the university to create Ersoy’s facial features and said, “We transferred this sculpture to a three-dimensional environment with the photogrammetry technique. In this way, we obtained the facial features that are closest to reality.”

Student Yusuf Akkus explained that he created Mehmet Akif Ersoy’s hair, beard, mustache and clothes using 3D software.

Another student Muhammet Salih Kara stated that they benefited from data in the Mehmet Akif Research Institute of the university and said, “We trained our artificial intelligence model with this data.”

Source: Newsroom