Would you like Vincent Van Gogh to paint your portrait?
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) said yesterday that it developed a digital painting technology that can incorporate brush strokes that have a “human” touch. Maybe not the same as the famed painter, but as close to a real painting as a digital image gets.
The state-run institute said it used “non-photorealistic rendering,” a method of visual expression used in computer graphics. Unlike graphic software tools like Photoshop, this technology applies digital paint stroke by stroke, as a human painter would. A portrait takes 20 seconds to “draw” on a digital “canvas.”
The technology will be exhibited at the Guerilla Studio of Siggraph 2006 starting Monday in Boston, where visitors can have their portraits drawn by the computer and printed out on the spot. The computer graphics convention and exhibition takes place every year and is the largest of its kind in the world. The Guerilla Studio is an exhibition that fuses emerging technology in an art gallery format.
“We plan to commercialize the computer graphics technology for use in animation or films later this year and develop other drawing techniques, such as cartoons or pen and ink. We have also filed for two international patents,” said researcher Koo Bon-gi.
by Wohn Dong-hee
‘hanaTV’ brings DVD rental shop into homes
July 25, 2006
No more trips to the DVD store.
So said Hanarotelecom President Park Byung-moo yesterday as the company launched its new video-on-demand (VOD) TV portal service.
The second-largest broadband operator unveiled its new service, “hanaTV,” at a press conference at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul.
The service provides content such as movies, news, sports, children’s programing, adult and music.
“Until now, we’ve been competing with marketing tactics, but now its time to find a new growth engine,” Mr. Park said, referring to hot competition in the fixed-line and high-speed Internet market. “Our vision is not to be a network seller, but becoming a media group.”
The service is like having a DVD rental shop and cable television database right in your home.
Subscribers can choose a program anytime and all programs are offered in high-definition digital images with a 5.1 channel sound support system. There are also traditional VHS functions, such as fast-forwarding or rewinding.
Hanaro has deals with more than 50 domestic and foreign content providers, including Sony Pictures Television International, Walt Disney Television, National Geographic, and broadcasters BBC Worldwide and EBS.
The company is negotiating with more major movie producers in Hollywood and major Korean broadcasters.
Most content can be viewed with a flat monthly subscription fee that ranges between 7,000 won ($7.40) and 11,800 won. Service rates vary depending on length of contract and if customers subscribe to Hanaro’s broadband service and fixed-line.
The set-top box is free for the duration of the subscription. Hanaro also plans to add some premium “paid” contents.
Mr. Park said that Hanaro tried to stick to the basics of what TV viewers wanted.
“The reason VOD or Internet Portal TV was unsuccessful in the past was because service providers asked users to be too interactive. TV is TV. We tried to preserve the passive traits of the user as much as possible,” he said.
He said “hanaTV” has a fundamental difference in technology. “Existing IP-TV services were mostly streaming services, and the quality of the images was not good. We developed our own technology which downloads the program temporarily to the set-top box― preventing lags and generating fine images,” he said.
by Wohn Dong-hee for JoongAng Daily
Market booms for navigation devices
July 18, 2006
| Competition is becoming fierce in the personal navigation market as more players ― both domestic and foreign ― join in. According to industry figures, the market has swelled from 200,000 units in 2003 to 700,000 units last year, and it is on the verge of exceeding 1 million units this year. Taiwan’s Mitac, which stands at the top of the global market, sells more than 800,000 units a year. This month, the firm is establishing a branch in Seoul. Last year, Mitac sold “Mio”― a portable GPS (global postioning system) navigation system ― through LG International. The device was available mainly through TV home shopping, but sold 150,000 units. This year, Mitac is aiming to sell 250,000 units in Korea alone. The firm established a research and development center and service center early this year. It plans to launch a 4.2-inch digital multimedia broadcasting navigation device this month. The tentative price is 549,000 won ($575 ). Industry analysts expect Mitac’s local presence to heat up the navigation market, since domestic makers are also aggressively making navigation devices, mainly on the lower end, that have both navigator and digital multimedia broadcasting functions. Hyundai Autonet, the “big brother” in the industry, released the “Pontus HNA620” early this year. The latest version, released in April, is 3.5-inches and serves as a GPS navigator and a digital multimedia broadcasting terminal. It costs 399,000 won. Carpoint released a 4.2-inch DMB plus navigator “Xroad Korea” for the local market in May. Carpoint will focus on exports this year, and expand its exporting to 60 countries, including the United States, Germany, Italy and Britain. “Last year, we exported 25 billion won’s worth of devices, which was half of our total sales, but this year, competition in the domestic market is very fierce so we plan to export 60 percent of our products,” said Kim Jeong-hoon of Carpoint. The firm’s sales goal this year is 100 billion won. Thinkware System Corp. will begin selling its DMB/navigator “iNabi Smart” this month. The device has a 4-inch LCD monitor and will run about 500,000 won. LG Electronics and SK Corp. have developed their own products. Samsung Electronics will only develop export products and not enter domestic competition. “Korea is the most advanced market for digital convergence and the growth rate of the personal navigation market is higher in Korea than in other countries, which is what makes the market very attractive,” a spokesman for Mitac said. by Kim Tae-jin, Wohn Dong-hee for JoongAng Daily |
Mario gets ready to jump into the Korean market
July 5, 2006
Some interesting news for the small yet growing number of console gamers in Korea: Nintendo is going to open an office here. Believe it or not, the company has operations in about 20 countries, but not in its neighboring, game-crazed country, Korea.
The Japanese-based game firm announced its plans for a Seoul division last Thursday in a shareholder’s meeting and later posted it on its Web site. The investment will be 3 billion yen ($30 million), it said. Nintendo explained that the affiliate would be wholly owned by the mother company and that it would focus on selling portable game machines, such as the Nintendo DS, which can run Korean-language software. Until now, most Nintendo products in Korea did not support hangul. The division will also be in charge of marketing and after-sales services.
Currently, Koam NanoBio acts as the company’s agent here. Nintendo declined to speculate on what would happen after its sets up its local arm, but said it expects to continue its distribution service.
This announcement comes at an extremely sensitive time. Although most game players seem uninterested in “real world” politics, Korea and Japan are in a very tense situation right now regarding the Dokdo islets. Both countries are claiming the waters around the rocks as their territory.
Analysts in the game industry noted that Nintendo’s venture into the Korean market is simply about earning money and not about nationalistic sentiments, noting that Nintendo’s current president, Satoru Iwata, is different from his predecessor, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who said bluntly that he wasn’t interested in operations in Korea.
Nintendo’s entry into Korea also signifies a culture import of a different sort; it has been only four years since the Korean government allowed the imports of Japanese console games. In April 2002, Nintendo introduced its Game Boy Advance handset and Pokemon software through Koam NanoBio, which was known then as Daiwon C.I.
In December that year, it released its GameCube, and more recently, the Nintendo DS. Nintendo’s presence in Korea, however, accounted for less than 5 percent of the local console game market, which is dominated by Sony, also a Japanese company.
by Wohn Dong-hee
