The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on August 19 that it has selected a total of 17 winning entries for the "2025 Culture Digital Innovation and Data Utilization Contest."
This contest, held from June 2 to July 18, was organized under the theme "Culture Changed by Digital, Innovation Led by Artificial Intelligence (AI)" to discover innovative services in the fields of culture, sports, and tourism that incorporate digital technology and are tangible to the public. A total of 223 entries were submitted: 39 in the Best Practices category, 156 in the Ideas category, and 28 in the Data Analysis category. Various cases drew attention, including the use of advanced technologies such as AI, extended reality (XR), and data analysis to enhance cultural experiences for people with disabilities, support child development, and promote traditional culture, thereby realizing social value.
The grand prize in the Best Practices category was awarded to the K-Culture Integrated Journey Platform "K In My Hands" and the virtual Korean traditional instrument "Joseon Series." K In My Hands is a platform that provides K-culture fans with information on language, travel, visas, and more, supporting a seamless experience from learning about K-content to actual travel and local communication. The virtual instrument Joseon Series optimizes over 6,000 digital sound sources of Korean traditional instruments provided by the National Gugak Center using AI, enabling creators to easily generate high-quality Korean traditional music tracks and offering a lifelike playing experience.
K-Culture Integrated Journey Platform 'K In My Hands' [Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]
The Excellence Award goes to "Proto Hologram," a real-time communication platform that uses AI and XR technology to implement three-dimensional holograms for real-time playback and interaction anywhere in the world, and to "Ongo," an AI-based ancient document analysis and translation platform. The Encouragement Award will be given to "Wendy AI Commerce Solution," an AI-based multilingual short-form video production platform, and "When You Go to the Market," an AI-powered local traditional market exploration service.
In the newly established AI Utilization category, the special prize will be awarded to "Graphitoon," a character video creation tool designed to enhance digital creativity and support art therapy for children.
The grand prize in the Ideas category goes to "Jikper," an AI music component combination search service that helps users accurately find songs by combining 15 musical elements such as speed and beat, and to the "Developmental Delay Screening and Care Solution," which analyzes children's fine motor skills, cognition, and color development indicators using AI by evaluating works that combine children's coloring activities with content created from transformed traditional patterns.
AI Music Component Combination Search Technology Service 'Jikper' [Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]
The Excellence Award will be presented to "Deep in Sound," a platform that allows people with hearing impairments to experience content such as performances, movies, and games by converting sounds into visual and tactile sensations through wearable devices, and to "Hand in Hand," a Korean sign language learning service that provides personalized feedback for sign language learners using AI hand gesture recognition technology. The Encouragement Award will be given to "Malmoi 2.0," a service that collects regional dialects and expands them into tourism and cultural content, and to "Bamgyeol," a platform that recommends customized cultural content for night and shift workers by combining location, time, and emotional data.
The special prize in the AI Utilization category will go to "Silver Fit," a service that uses a smart mirror to guide seniors in their exercise posture.
The grand prize in the Data Analysis category is awarded to the "K-Novel Translation Market Decision Support Platform," which improves translation quality based on large language models and analyzes translation results and data to recommend user-customized content. The Excellence Award goes to "Soompick," 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 is given to a case that suggests walking tour courses to users by utilizing GPS route tracking and image recognition technology.
The awards ceremony will be held on November 18 at the 2025 Culture Digital Innovation Forum at Seoul Dragon City Hotel. The grand prize winners in the Best Practices, Ideas, and Data Analysis categories will receive the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award and prize money. Detailed information about the winning entries can be found on the official website.
Lee Jungeun, Director of Policy Planning at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "By reviewing contest entries that addressed diverse topics such as people with hearing impairments, children with developmental disabilities, and regional dialects, we have confirmed that digital technology can serve as a warm social solution and a driving force for cultural diffusion." She added, "Through the contest, the Ministry will actively discover innovative cases that combine culture and technology, and develop them into a platform for digital cultural communication shared with the public."
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