Egencomz to supply Ewha Womans University Medical Center with ‘step UP system’On Sept. 27, the IoT solution company Egencomz (CEO: Kang Sang-koo) announced that it will be supplying Ewha Womans University Medical Center with “step UP,” a health statistic management and disaster response system. The system is composed of sensors installed throughout the building that record the number of steps people take on the stairs. In the event of a natural disaster, the sensors also show the locations of pe

Foreign smartphone-makers are speeding up their expansion in the Korean market long dominated by local brands Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. A string of foreign smartphone brands Apple, Huawei, Sony and Blackberry have recently unveiled or plan to roll out their new devices here. “Korea is a good test-bed for new smartphones because of its fast Internet speed and tech-savvy consumers,” said Chung Hei-sang, a senior researcher at Korea Economic Research Institute. “The law to restrict ph

Top leaders of Samsung Electronics Co. and Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank Corp. met in Seoul Thursday to discuss cooperation in areas including Internet of Things technology, sources said.Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, met with SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son at the Samsung office in Seocho Ward earlier in the day for talks about the semiconductor industry and IoT technology, which connects objects to the Internet and allows them to send and receive data, accordi

LG Innotek, a parts-making unit of LG Group, won a patent suit against Japanese electric motor-maker Nidec Corporation, the company said Thursday. The ruling came after the Korean parts-maker filed a lawsuit against Nidec in January of last year, alleging the Japanese firm infringed its patents related to optical disk drive. The suit was filed at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court where their production facilities are located. The patents that the Japanese firm allegedly infringed are techn

Samsung Group has picked 28 research projects on three fields of basic science, materials technology and information and communications technology as part of a 1.5 trillion won program designed to nurture the nation’s competitiveness, the group said Thursday.Among 14 research projects on basic science, the nation’s largest conglomerate chose to support a study on visualizing how human memories are made -- work that is expected to contribute to treating neurodegenerative diseases like dementia an

South Korea’s leading mobile game developer Netmarble Games said Thursday that it will on Friday embark on regulatory procedures to pursue an initial public offering on Korea’s main bourse Kospi.　Netmarble said it will apply for regulatory review of its IPO by the Korea Exchange, with plans to complete the public listing by the year’s end or early next year.Industry watchers predict Netmarble’s market capitalization could reach up to 10 trillion won ($9.13 billion), given its growth potential. L

South Korean children’s content is finding its way to overseas audiences through YouTube and Google Play, thanks to the platforms’ ability to reach viewers without traditional limitations such as allocated TV time slots.　“New distribution platforms like YouTube and Google Play have fundamentally changed the way we bring our animations to our audience,” Lee Jong-yoon, a manager from Iconix Co. -- the creator of beloved homemade animations such as Pororo the Penguin -- said during a media event or

SK Group is speeding up its business reshuffle through merger and acquisition deals after Chairman Chey Tae-won returned to the management position a year ago after a three-year hiatus. Most recently, its trading arm SK Networks was reportedly chosen as the preferred bidder to buy local home appliance vendor Tongyang Magic. The deal is expected to create synergies by linking SK Networks’ rental business and Tongyang Magic‘s home appliances. “If confirmed, the deal can create synergies within the

Fintech startup SsenStone announced Tuesday that its independently developed certification security product, StonePASS, recently received FIDO certification, an international standard for biometric authentication. StonePASS is the realization of the “direct authentication” concept through the integration of various authentication solutions -- password, i-Pin, and OTP, for example -- into one system. (SsenStone CEO Yoo Chang-hun, photo by Ahn Hye-ran, intern reporter)“Because biometric recognitio

Advances in information and communication technology have been instrumental in shaping and leading socioeconomic transformations across Asia and the Pacific. One key to this transformation is the technology bundled around the Internet of Things, which enables billions of devices to connect over the internet for more accurate, real time data collection and analysis in an unparalleled scale. Through internet-connected sensors attached to infrastructure, early-on maintenance alarms can be raised fo

You wake up to blaring music from the app AlarmMon, but you cannot stop it from ringing by simply hitting a button. Instead, you must play a short smartphone game that gets your brain rolling first thing in the morning. Heading out the door, you find the fastest trains and the nearest exit to your destination via a few taps on the Subway Korea mobile app.Back at home, you open the distance-based dating app 1Km, to connect with new people who live in your neighborhood. In the evening, you might u

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei said Tuesday that it will launch its latest budget “H” smartphone in South Korea this week, targeting consumers looking for cheaper alternatives to expensive high-end smartphones.　Huawei’s “H” smartphone will be sold exclusively through local network carrier LG Uplus starting from Thursday. The new device, an upgraded version of Huawei’s budget Y7 smartphone introduced here last December, is priced at 242,000 won ($220). It comes in two colors -- black and white.H