Vatican Used 400,000 Photos to Create Digital Twin of St Peter’s Basilica [Video]

400,000 photographs were used to create an AI-generated digital version of St. Peter’s Basilica, the 400-year-old Vatican City church considered central to Christianity.

On Monday, the Vatican and Microsoft Iconem unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy — one of the world’s most famous and most visited churches.

The project was developed in collaboration with the French digital preservation startup Iconem using AI, photogrammetry, and digital preservation.

Through a new website, digital users can virtually “visit” St. Peter’s Basilica and explore immersive 3D tours of spaces in the church.

According to AP News, the project used 400,000 high-resolution digital photographs of St Peter’s Basilica, taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was in the basilica. They then used advanced AI algorithms to piece together the data.

“It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued,” Microsoft’s president Brad …