Moon, confident about ICT lead, shakes hands with robot

President Moon Jae-in expressed his confidence that in the age of the fourth industrial revolution, Korea will lead the global ICT market.

“Not only conglomerates in the electronics and IT sector - whose abilities we are already familiar with - but also medium-sized companies, as well as small ventures and start-ups, [and] products that were developed by colleges that have won innovation awards,” President Moon said Tuesday at an IT exhibition.

He noted Korean companies won 71 innovation awards during the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) held in Las Vegas earlier this month, and he stressed that Korea won the most awards, second only to the host country, the United States.

“The victory of six products from companies that have just started is very inspiring,” he noted.

The IT exhibition was held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza and a total of 35 companies attended. Participants included Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, SK Telecom and Naver Labs, as well as start-ups that attended the CES.

The exhibition is being held until the end of this month.

President Moon said he was especially surprised by the ideas that went beyond his imagination and thanked government departments - including the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of SME and Startups - for providing the opportunity for Koreans to see the advanced technologies without having to travel to Las Vegas.

“I hope the public will see the innovative products for themselves and see how far our innovations have come,” Moon said.

At the exhibition, he toured the booths of several companies, including Microsystem. It developed “drop-free glass” technology, which allows camera lenses to automatically clean themselves. The company said it signed an agreement with GoPro at the CES this year to supply the product.

The company also added BMW and Tesla have also made contact, and it will make demonstrations to them in the fourth quarter.

The president visited the booth of OBE Lab, a Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology in-house start-up. It has developed a mobile neuroimaging sensor.

According to the company, its device can detect damage to the brain, including cerebral infractions. Last year, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital used the technology to test 200 people.

Moon visited the in-house start-ups of conglomerates, including a Samsung Electronics company that developed a smartphone that can provide 3-D images without the glasses and a Naver company that has created a robotic arm.

The president shook hands with it.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]