.jpg) SK Telecom’s mobile application “Ovjet” uses the location-sensing functions of phones to recognize the user’s position and relay information on the area on the display. / Korea Times |
Staff Reporter
SK Telecom, locked in a race to make smartphones smarter, is looking to equip its mobile devices with the cyborg-like vision.
The country's biggest mobile telephony operator unveiled new software Wednesday that uses the built-in cameras on phones to offer users a wealth of location-specific information, such as transportation, restaurant, and shopping options, and the number of tickets available at movie theaters nearby.
The product, dubbed as "Ovjet," is one of the first mobile applications here that promises to enable "augmented reality (AR)," or the technology to display electronic information in a real-world view.
SK Telecom hopes Ovjet, which can be downloaded for free from the company's T-Store online applications market (www.tstore.co.kr), will be a popular application for its premium handsets powered by the Google-backed Android operating system, including the recently released Motorola Motoroi and Samsung Electronics' new device hitting the shelves next month.
About 12 of the 15 new smartphone models released by SK Telecom this year will be Android-based models, and Ovjet will be available for all of them, company officials said.
"With smartphones becoming more conventional, augmented reality services will allow users a totally different experience compared to the existing mobile search services," said Kim Su-il, who heads SK Telecom's new business operations division.
"After testing the product in the domestic market, we will explore opportunities in foreign markets."
Location-based information services are expected to emerge as mainstream applications for smartphones, which offer a variety of data and multimedia features in addition to voice.
And mobile telephony operators hope that AR technology will accelerate this transition by allowing data from the Internet to be overlaid upon a view of the physical world.
AR-enabled handsets provide a watered-down version of the vision used by robots in science fiction movies like "Terminator" or "Transformers."
Users can just point the camera on their phone to a nearby building, road or any other part of the urban landscape, and the handset, using its location-sensing functions, will offer a view tagged with a variety of location-based information, SK Telecom officials said.
The Ovjet application can be used for finding the closest subway station, reading online reviews of restaurants or checking the schedule at a nearby performing arts center.
SK Telecom is also looking to take advantage of user-created-content by Ovjet users to enrich the location-based information.
"The existing applications that claim to provide AR, such as the Odivar and iNeedCoffee application for iPhone users, have provided only a limited range of information, such as finding subway stations and coffee shops, and failed to sense and analyze where the user is exactly positioned and offer the relevant information to him or her," said a SK Telecom official.
"In this sense, Ovjet is the first application here that provides AR. You can just point your camera at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts, and the handset will provide the latest information on the performances there and offer a link to Sejong's Web site, and it can also connect a phone call for reservations."
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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