TimeLens: On-Device Artifact Recognition with Retrieval-Augmented Question Answering for the Grand Egyptian Museum
Researchers have developed TimeLens, an AI-powered mobile guide for the Grand Egyptian Museum. This system can recognize artifacts in real-time and answer visitor questions in English or Arabic. The project involved creating an on-device artifact detector using YOLOv8n, which achieves high accuracy while remaining a small, efficient asset for mobile devices. Additionally, a bilingual Retrieval-Augmented Generation guide was optimized for low latency, using the Gemma 4 E2B language model and a ChromaDB knowledge base. AI
IMPACT Demonstrates practical application of on-device AI for real-time artifact recognition and multilingual Q&A in a museum setting.