Display expert wins ETRI Researcher of the Year award

Kang Chan-mo, right, a researcher of ETRI, poses with ETRI President Bang Seung-chan during an award ceremony at the research institute in Seoul, Wednesday. Kang won this year's ETRI Researcher of the Year award for his contribution to OLED research. Courtesy of ETRI

By Baek Byung-yeul

Kang Chan-mo, a display researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), has won this year's ETRI Research of the Year award for his contribution to OLED research, the state-run IT research institute said Wednesday.

ETRI said Kang, who has developed the key technology for OLED microdisplays, critical components for virtual reality and augmented reality devices, was honored with the award.

To achieve a realistic metaverse system, it is essential to develop small displays that can be used for glasses and head-mounted display devices. Moreover, to achieve high-resolution screen quality in small displays, microdisplay technology with a resolution much higher than that of mobile phone screens is required.

“Kang has led the development of key components and process technology for high-resolution microdisplays and successfully transferred research outcomes,” ETRI said.

ETRI also awarded prizes to researchers and laboratories that have produced outstanding research results.

In the technology transfer category, the end-to-end voice recognition technology from Superintelligence Creative Research Laboratory received the highest honor thanks to the laboratory's excellent research.

ETRI said the technology resulted in about 2.7 billion won ($2.04 million) in technology royalties through a total of 13 technology transfers that occurred in 2022.

The voice recognition technology was applied to artificial intelligence (AI)-based speech recognition for children's content of I-NARA and real-time captioning services for the National Assembly. The technology will also be used in the Korean Language Proficiency Test, conducted by the Ministry of Education.

“On the occasion of the 47th anniversary of establishment, we will continue to make efforts to realize the vision of ETRI as a technology pioneer creating a happy future world through digital innovation,” Bang Seung-chan, president of ETRI, said.