Chennai, March 1 (BPNS)

The Tamil Nadu idol wing with the support of IIT –Madras is to set up a virtual museum at www.tnidols.com.

Sources in the police idol wing informed BPNS that there are at present 374 idols that include 36 metal objects, 265 stone objects, and 73 wooden objects.

The website is under reconstruction and will be updated in a couple of days’ time, idol wing police sources said. However, the idol wing has to get clearance from the Tamil Nadu government which has the physical ownership of the idols for selling the digital version of the idols at the museum through Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). The temple idols will not be sold through digital or virtual formats.

The TN idol wing has taken 3D pictures of the idols using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) unique cameras with the support of IIT- Madras.

The idol wing will also crowdsource images of all antique idols from volunteers in Tamil Nadu and these images will be uploaded temple-wise, subdivision-wise, and district-wise.

These idols can be assessed by the devotees and lovers of ancient idols from the comfort of their homes. There were also reports that several smugglers had stolen the original idols and replaced them with fake idols over the years and it was impossible to verify whether the idols are antique or non–antique.

The idol wing is using artificial intelligence to determine the era and age of the idols.

The Tamil Nadu idol wing is expecting to generate additional revenue for the TN government by selling these digitalized versions of the idols barring temple idols as NFTs.