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Designium’s “The Hidden Shrine” Wins Best Technical Execution Prize at Niantic Real-World Impact Challenge

  • Writer: Mary Chin
    Mary Chin
  • May 19
  • 2 min read
A person holds a smartphone displaying an augmented reality view of red torii gates and a glowing blue guardian lion statue, overlaid on a real-world city plaza. Text on the right reads: Award Winning – The Hidden Shrine. Hashtags include WebAR, AR Portal, and Gaussian Splatting. A WebAR logo and the Designium logo are also present.

Designium is proud to announce that "The Hidden Shrine", its groundbreaking WebAR experience, has been awarded the Best Technical Execution Prize at the 2025 Niantic Real-World Impact Challenge. This prestigious honor recognizes Designium’s innovative use of AR Portal and 3D Gaussian Splatting to deliver an unmatched level of immersion and photorealism—directly in the browser.


AR Portal

  • Detect flat surfaces in your environment and spawn a virtual doorway.

  • Step through with your phone, tablet or XR headset to instantly “teleport” into the shrine’s virtual space.


3D Gaussian Splatting

  • 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) Introduced by Kerbl et al. in 2023, 3DGS is a fast, high-quality way to render 3D scenes.

  • Unlike conventional explicit volumetric representations, such as voxel grids, it provides a continuous and flexible representation for modeling 3D scenes in terms of differentiable 3D Gaussian shaped primitives.

  • These primitives are used to parameterize the radiance field and can be rendered to produce novel views from any angle. Renders photorealistic textures — aged stones, weathered wood, moss — at interactive frame rates, even on mobile browsers.

  • In addition, 3DGS achieves real-time rendering through a tile-based rasterizer — making it perfect for interactive AR/VR, games, and web graphics.


About “The Hidden Shrine”



The Hidden Shrine WebAR is created in collaboration with Niantic Studio — 8th Wall. This project uses a 3D Gaussian Splatting model of a real Japanese shrine to immerse users in a unique, interactive exploration that blends digital innovations with historical spirituality.


Key Features

  • Interactive Exploration Blend digital storytelling with on‑site navigation of the shrine’s landmarks.

  • AI Companion Ask questions about architecture, rituals, and history via a live chat interface.

  • Chat Log Interface Track your AI dialogue in a dedicated chat box.

  • Immersive Navigation Navigate the shrine’s landmarks, enriched by the Gaussian Splatting model that brings the architecture to life.

  • Social Sharing Capture AR snapshots and share your discoveries directly to social media.


Evolving to Seamless AR Experiences


Designium bring the “Anywhere Door” concept — powered by AR Portal and 3D Gaussian Splatting — demonstrates how browser-based AR can transcend physical boundaries to create truly immersive XR experiences. From virtual performance stages and enhanced tourism tours to interactive classrooms, digital preservation of heritage, and narrative-driven gaming, this technology proves its versatility across industries. As WebAR continues to mature, we stand at the threshold of a new era where exploration, learning, and entertainment can all be delivered instantly through a simple link. Ready to open your own portal? Please feel free to contact us and let’s collaborate to bring your innovative ideas to life, wherever you are and on any device.







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