Vizara: On A Journey to Preserve & Present India’s Heritage and Culture using cutting-edge technologies!

Our heritage is an amalgamation of natural, cultural, tangible, and intangible assets that are available to us from the past and will be channeled to our future generations. Arrant documentation, restoration, and maintenance of these remains have become imperative to add character and distinction to our future. Considering the vast and diverse heritage of India, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) initiated the Indian Heritage in Digital Space (IHDS) program that aims to create a crowd-sourcing framework for building digital collections of heritage resources and curating & distributing multi-media digital resources and assets for unrestricted access to support cross-disciplinary research in Indian heritage.

The vision of leveraging the myriad of digital technologies for safeguarding thousands of years of heritage grabbed the attention of breakthrough innovators such as Dr. Anupama Mallik who visualized a new way of documenting and showcasing Indian cultural heritage using cutting-edge technologies like AR &VR, 3D-Printing, IoT, and AI. Through Vizara Technologies, Dr. Anupama and her team have been providing digital documentation and knowledge-driven explorations of places, objects, people, and communities, enhanced with immersive experiences and interactive interfaces.

Vizara has been closely working with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and other agencies of the Government of India who share the vision of preserving & presenting India’s digital heritage for future generations.

Vizara played a significant role in executing the Indian Digital Heritage – 5 Monument initiative led by DST, supported by the Ministry of Culture, and GoI. Under the aegis of IIT-Delhi, this women-led tech start-up was selected by the Ministry of Commerce to showcase five true-scale 3D printed replicas of Indian monuments such as the Stone Chariot, Hampi, Taj Mahal, Kashi Vishwanath temple, Sun temple Konark, and Rani Ki Vav, including 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites with a linked augmented reality (AR) application at the India Pavilion, Expo 2020 Dubai for six months.

“We take pride in developing five replicas of our country’s heritage and showcase along with an AR app developed by us to provide an immersive experience to visitors from 190 countries at the Expo. They were moved from their resting place in the National Museum, New Delhi. On the 2nd day of the Expo, 02 October, our Gandhi 360-degree Movies, commissioned for Gandhi@150, were also played in the Dome Theatre at the Expo. We feel happy to have received acute recognition from dignitaries across the world. We are honoured to be appreciated by Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Piyush Goyal during the inauguration of the Expo,” says Anupama Mallik, CEO & Director, Vizara.

The company has also worked with IIM-Ahmedabad, IIT-Jodhpur, and recently worked with IISER-Bhopal to create an immersive and unique experience for their Convocations. Vizara is physically incubated at Center of Excellence – IoT & AI, Gurugram, which is a Joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Govt. of Haryana, and NASSCOM.

What does it offer!!

The start-up offers, amongst other services, true-scale 3D replicas of monuments and artifacts of any size through LiDar scanning, 3D modelling, and 3D printing as well as 3D walkthroughs of the heritage sites.

Other services include Vizara’s turn-key solutions for designing and setting up NextGen Experiential Centers. These centers are equipped with innovative technology that enables the fabrication of extremely voguish, immersive, and extended-reality (XR) experiences. This is further improvised with high-quality 2D and 3D in-house content.

This Gurgaon-based start-up is widely known for its unique interactive kiosk ViRaasat that showcases a bird-eye view of a built site with a tailored virtual demonstration and guided tour-on-demand. This platform comprises of physical site model, projection systems, vision equipment, and interactive tools that call attention to the different aspects of a heritage site history, architecture, mythology & cultural legacy. Vizara uses an interactive hologram in 3D to set up a realistic reproduction that gives a beguiling experience every time to the viewer. Their 3D printed memorabilia called the ViRaasat gifts that come in different forms and are available at different prices.

The company has employed AR & VR technologies to develop several services and applications that bring forth an immersive, unique, and memorable experience to the viewer or user. To keep these applications available to the users, Vizara has made its various applications on Google PlayStore and App Store. Additionally, they are also creating mobile based applications for gamification of heritage sites that can be used to better engage the younger audiences.

Headed and mentored by IIT and MIT alumni, Vizara has been and will continue to be on a journey that will greatly accelerate India’s growth in the tech space.

“The tag of being connected with a prestigious agency such as the Nasscom has also helped us with our pitches. NASSCOM CoE has been a great enabler for us in the last year. Friendly staff, good amenities, and a well-constructed co-working space, coupled with the well-equipped labs has enabled our start-up to work efficiently during this trying time. CoE also enables Enterprise access through its Co-Innovation programs,” Dr. Anupama Mallik, CEO & Director, Vizara.

For any further information\query you can write to us at Co-innovate@nasscom.in