SHEM*

An AR oracle

PROTOTYPE

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PROTOTYPE *

For thousands of years, oracles were physical, spatial, shared. Today, they’re chatbots.

I believe AI and XR are converging toward something more grounded—not just interfaces, but presences. SHEM is a prototype for that future: AI that occupies a specific place, holds a specific form, and meets people where they are. The technology is the medium. The encounter is the point.

SHEM takes the Thinking Man of Yehud—a 4,000-year-old Canaanite sculpture from the Israel Museum whose exact purpose remains unknown—and reconstructs it as a living, conversational AR presence.

The sculpture was photogrammetry-scanned, rebuilt in high-resolution 3D using AI, refined in Blender, then deployed as an AI-driven NPC inside Unreal Engine 5. Point your phone at a space and SHEM appears: grounded in place, ready to talk.

Where most AI lives in the cloud and speaks through a screen, SHEM is anchored to a location. It turns a public space into a site of encounter—and a 4,000-year-old artifact into something that talks back.

Historical Inspiration

It started at the Israel Museum—standing in front of the Thinking Man of Yehud, a 4,000-year-old Canaanite figure whose original purpose no one fully understands. That open question felt like an invitation.

3D Reconstruction with AI

Photogrammetry scans of the sculpture were fed into Meshy AI to generate a high-polygon 3D mesh—10,000 faces, 4,982 vertices. The model was cleaned and optimized in Blender and Nomad Sculpt, then rigged as an AI-driven NPC inside Unreal Engine 5 using a custom Blueprint and AI NPC plugin. The result: a real-time, spatially anchored character you can stand in front of and talk to.

Then there’s the moment you try it for the first time.

Once it’s embodied, you can’t help but talk to it.

Right now, it’s a prototype—but the potential is clear, especially once it steps out of the studio and into the public space it was designed for.

Project Technical Details

  • 3D Scanning & Reconstruction:
    Scanned the original sculpture and used Meshy AI to generate high-resolution 3D models.

  • 3D Modeling & Editing:
    Cleaned, edited, and optimized the model using Blender and Nomad Sculpt.

  • AR Development:
    Integrated the model and interactions using Unreal Engine 5, with a focus on Niagara for ambient effects and Lumen for real-time lighting.

  • AI Character Logic:
    Designed and embedded AI-driven responses using a custom prompt system, prepared for integration with an AI NPC plugin in Unreal.

  • Interaction Design:
    Built for future use in mobile AR and headset-based experiences, with a focus on slow, contemplative user flow.