The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 19th that it is hosting the '2025 Cultural Digital Innovation and Data Utilization Contest' and has selected 17 award-winning entries.
The Cultural Digital Innovation and Data Utilization Contest is held to discover innovative services that combine digital technology in the cultural, sports, and tourism institutional sectors. This year's contest, themed 'Digital changes in cultural daily life, innovation led by artificial intelligence (AI),' received a total of 223 submissions, including 39 in the excellence case sector, 156 in the ideas sector, and 28 in the data analysis sector.
The award for the excellence case sector was given to the K-Culture integrated journey platform 'K in My Hands' and the traditional Korean music virtual instrument 'Joseon Series.' 'K in My Hands' provides K-Culture fans with information on language, travel, visas, etc., and supports a seamless experience from learning K-content to actual travel and local communication. The virtual traditional Korean music instrument 'Joseon Series' optimizes over 6,000 digital sound sources of traditional Korean instruments provided by the National Gugak Center using artificial intelligence, allowing any creator to generate high-quality sound sources for traditional Korean music.
The excellence award was given to the real-time communication platform 'Proto Hologram', which implements a three-dimensional hologram using artificial intelligence and extended reality (XR) technology, enabling real-time playback and interaction from anywhere in the world, and to the AI historical document analysis and translation platform 'Ongo.' The encouragement award was presented to the AI-based multilingual short video production platform 'Wendy AI Commerce Solution' and the nearby traditional market AI exploration service 'Market Visit.' The special award in the newly established AI utilization sector goes to the character video production tool 'Graphytoon' aimed at improving digital creativity and children's art therapy.
The award for the ideas sector was won by the 'AI music component combination search service,' which combines 15 elements of music such as speed and beats to accurately find the desired song, and 'Development delay screening and care solution,' which analyzes a child's developmental indicators such as fine motor skills, cognition, and color using artificial intelligence, by adding a child's coloring activities to content created by transforming traditional patterns.
The excellence award was given to the platform 'Deep In Sound,' which allows hearing-impaired individuals to experience content such as performances, movies, and games by converting sound into visual and tactile experiences through wearable devices, and to the Korean Sign Language learning service 'Hand in Hand,' which provides customized feedback to sign language learners using AI gesture recognition technology. The encouragement award went to the service 'Malmoe 2.0,' which collects regional dialects and expands them into cultural content for tourism, and the platform 'Night Stream,' which combines location, time, and emotional data to recommend customized cultural content for night and shift workers. The special award for AI utilization goes to 'Silver Fit,' which uses smart mirrors to guide elderly people on their exercise posture.
The award for the data analysis sector was given to the 'K-Novel Translation Market Decision Support Platform,' which improves translation quality based on large-scale language models and analyzes translation results and data to recommend user-customized content. The excellence award recipient is 'Soompik,' which analyzes cultural heritage data to uncover the value of hidden cultural assets and recommends exploration courses to users based on location, while the encouragement award includes cases that utilize GPS tracking and image recognition technology to suggest walking travel courses to users.
The award ceremony for the contest will take place on Nov. 18 at the Seoul Dragon City Hotel during the '2025 Cultural Digital Innovation Forum.' Winners in the excellence case and ideas, and data analysis sectors will receive the Minister's award from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and cash prizes.