The Korea Herald

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Korea launches alliance to nurture "smart home" industry

By a2016032

Published : April 26, 2017 - 13:18

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South Korea launched an alliance of leading information and communication technology and construction firms on Wednesday to nurture the "smart home" industry that connects artificial intelligence and Internet of Things to home appliances.

"We can make the world's leading smart home industry with the combination of our home electronics industry, information technology, infrastructure and semiconductors," Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan said at a event to mark the launch at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute in Seongnam, south of Seoul. He said South Korea can emerge as a global leader in the smart home business area.

(Yonhap) (Yonhap)

The alliance is supposed to exchange related technologies for the building of smart homes, develop big data-based smart services, standardize regulations and launch marketing activities for the expansion of this business field.

Among the participants are Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., SK Telecom, KT, the Korea Land and Housing Corp., the Seoul Housing & Communities Corp., S1 Corp., MDS Technology and Samyoung S&C.

Samsung Electronics Co. said it will equip Samsung home appliances with intelligent assistant "Bixby" and "Samsung Connect," which can control appliances both at home and out of the house.

The Bixby smart voice assistant helps users complete tasks by telling them what they are looking at, learning their routine and remembering what they need to do.

KT Corp., South Korea's biggest Internet service provider, has been providing its AI home assistant platform GiGA Genie to apartment complexes being built across the country.

GiGA Genie is an advanced voice recognition butler service allowing users to control home appliances and listen to music using voice commands processed by the world's first IPTV service with an AI function.

KT said unlike other voice assistance services, the set-top box arrangement allows users to give commands through the TV screen.

SK Telecom, South Korea's top mobile carrier, also provides a similar AI home assistant service called "NUGU." (Yonhap)