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Robots nag and sofas whine in the land of digital natives
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:51:56 -0700
________________________________________ From: Brian Randell [Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk] Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:48 AM To: David Farber Subject: Robots nag and sofas whine in the land of digital natives Dave: Here's an interesting account from today's (UK) Guardian about how "South Korea's investment in new tech has led to a booming economy and the world's most wired citizens" - for IP if you wish. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/17/robots.korea
Can you pull an economy up by its bootstraps? South Korea's government would argue that you can - by embracing every new appliance, digitised entertainment and contrived convenience. The country invested billions in IT and broadband infrastructure and it worked. South Korea has become the world's 10th largest economy and as a result of its government putting buckets of money where usually there is only rhetoric, it is now the most connected country in the world. Almost 70 years after its occupation by the Japanese came to an end, the South Koreans seem determined to outdo their neighbours when it comes to early adoption. Seoul maintains that this characteristic has become South Korea's saviour and will keep its economic engines gunning through the next decades. Brave new world Unlike similar British government initiatives - remember Harold Wilson's "white heat of technology" speech in the 1960s - Seoul's bid to make South Korea the number one early adopter has triumphed spectacularly. In fact, its citizens may have actually gone overboard in their zeal to embrace all things digital. According to Tomi Ahonen and Jim O'Reilly's book Digital Korea, 43% of South Korea's population maintain an online profile or blog site, while nine in 10 twentysomethings use a social network daily. Online gaming is also mainstream - the South Korean's most desired car is not a Ferrari but a Solid Pro, a virtual car from the online game Kart Rider. The average broadband connection is between 50 and 100 megabits a second (compared with the UK's average 4.6Mbps), and the country is already rolling out pilot connections at 1,000Mbps. South Koreans pay less for their broadband than any other OECD country - about £10 per month for connections that download films in minutes. So wired are South Koreans that some speak of "digital natives" or "new human beings", referring to the generation that was born and grew up in the 21st century internet era surrounded by gadgets like computers and mobile phones. "Some babies here appear to pick up a computer mouse and cell phone earlier than a spoon and chopsticks," says Park Jung-hyun, a senior researcher at LG Economic Research Institute. "Digital natives are thinking, acting and reacting much differently from how we did." The capital Seoul sees much early adoption of new technology, although you might be forgiven for thinking the 21st century hasn't yet happened to much of the city. Mostly shabby and filled with ugly signage and concrete high rises, this city of 12 million people hasn't yet begun to place its utility lines underground. But inside some of the smarter clusters of buildings and even traditional wooden "hanok" homes are blisteringly fast internet and hi-tech security systems. Up to a million new-build flats now sport voice-controlled electronics, intelligent fridges, and talking RFID-linked appliances that would not look out of place in a Philip K Dick novel. Nor do visitors to Korea have to wait for a personal invitation to experience such advanced home electronics. The government has thoughtfully built a mock-up of a totally wired apartment for public tours. In The Ubiquitous Dream Hall, furniture tells you what to do and the fridge nags you to buy new stuff or pay the bills. It is a vision now made concrete with the building of what South Koreans call a "ubiquitous networked world". Ubiquitous because it will be everywhere and brings together technology as diverse as telematics, wibro (South Korea's form of the long-distance wireless broadband Wimax), RFID tagging and intelligent robot services. There are now U-homes U-shops and U-cafes in Seoul. Ubiquitous too is the happy ethos that the tour of the Dream Hall's space promotes. Even the PR handouts lend an eerie over-optimistic glow, referring to "our super happy and bright futures". But wait a minute, why is that large, shaggy brown sofa whining like a puppy? Our guide informs us the sofa is "lonely". One Filipino visitor leaps on a shaggy dog-robot settee that's only happy when you sit on it and caress its arms. Maybe I-Robi, the winsome but attentive robot that follows our tour, can bring me a stiff drink to calm the nerves? No - the home bot is handy only as a glorified messenger and security guard - with more nagging: "Don't forget your keys! Have a nice day!" But as it has no hands, it can only carry your drink, not fetch it. The South Korean government reckons there will be an I-Robi in every home by 2010. This seems doubtful but there is a definite demand for the rest of the kit, demonstrated by Samsung's and LG's successful commercialisation of such future homes - where the front door opens when it recognises the radio tag in your mobile, the lights and TV go on and that day's video messages are played to you as your favourite background music kicks in automatically. For many South Koreans, these now come as standard. Cooking with ads One of the niftiest pieces of hi-tech in the home is the RFID-tagged paper flyer. Paper, but magnetic, they are designed to cling to a sort of intelligent flat screen-cum-notice board in your kitchen. Once in place - say a flyer promoting a concert - video, music and links to further information are relayed to your kitchen screen. Marketing people are also excited about a new advertisement projection campaign that the hall shows off in its "digital streets section". Ads will no longer be ignored as mere urban wallpaper; now they are fun and interactive, thanks to Reactrix, a US-based interactive ad company. Images projected onto flooring or pavements mean kids can now kick around virtual footballs, courtesy of Coca-Cola; or your shadow can move images of splurges of paint to create a messy virtual canvas. There are some definite social benefits to South Korea's eager adoption of IT. The hall allows a peek into the virtual classroom. South Korean schools have just introduced digital textbooks for the first time, but what is new is Korea University's experiments with regular textbooks and augmented reality. Pass a special black and white graphic from a book under a special camera and it translates the code into a colour 3D image. You can move the book around to see a cross-section of the Earth, for example. Something that will bring science alive for our own digital natives perhaps?
-- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- Robots nag and sofas whine in the land of digital natives David Farber (Apr 17)