Focus on realistic, interactive, emotional, content distribution and services
Weaknesses include lack of core intellectual property rights such as VR and AR and lack of creative device development

The Ministry of Science and ICT has released the Technology Roadmap 2022 (draft) that includes the 10 major ICT R&D technology fields and artificial intelligence fields. The 10 major ICT R&D technologies selected by the Ministry of Science and ICT to strengthen the interconnection of science and technology ICT and discover new industries are ▲digital content ▲convergence service ▲mobile communication ▲network ▲broadcasting/smart media ▲radio, satellite ▲basic SW computing ▲software ▲information protection ▲ICT devices, etc. Accordingly, e4ds News will introduce the R&D strategies of these fields in order and present a future technology development roadmap. [Reporter Shin Yun-oh]

Can we lead the realistic content technology that is the core of virtual reality and augmented reality technology?

As realistic and emotional intelligent content emerges as a future trend in the digital content industry, attention is focused on related industries.

Digital content refers to the software and hardware technologies required to plan, produce/produce, and utilize data information knowledge databases expressed in electronic form, such as codes, letters, voices, sounds, images, and videos, combined with ICT technology, in the form of services or products. This includes ▲realistic content ▲interactive content ▲emotional content ▲content distribution and services.

First, realistic content technology is evolving into 360 video devices, real-time processing technology, and broadcasting technology, and the goal is to commercialize multi-focus video technology and multi-faceted video technology.

▲ The digital content industry is expected to grow from a market of $96.3 billion in 2014 to about $154 billion in 2020. The photo shows KT's VR demonstration showcasing a ski resort experience.

Interaction content technology includes content such as VR and AR, which have recently become issues. In virtual reality (VR), competition on VR platforms is intensifying, various VR fusions are being attempted, and the emergence of five-sensory devices and VR simulators are expected to become active. In addition, transparent glass-type devices are expected to be released in augmented reality (AR), and NUI/NUX technology using multimodal input data is rapidly increasing. NUI (Natural User Interface) element technology refers to motion recognition and facial recognition, while NUX (Natural User Experience) refers to a human-centered smart content environment.

Emotional content technology is developing into sensing and reproduction technologies for the five senses, such as digital olfactory and tactile technologies, and is evolving into emotional recognition technologies using bio-signals of the five senses.

Content distribution and service technology are key to expanding competition in VR ecosystem platforms and improving real-time service quality. Examples include Oculus Share, Samsung Milli VR, and Google Day Dream.

The digital content industry is expected to grow from $96.3 billion in 2014 to approximately $154 billion in 2020. The global virtual reality/augmented reality market is expected to grow from $3 billion and $1 billion in 2016 to $30 billion and $120 billion in 2020.

There are no software and content companies that can lead the global market.

SWOT analysis of the digital content industry shows the reality of the domestic industry. The domestic digital content industry has the world's best network infrastructure and device manufacturing technology as strengths (S), and has large-scale content production/service/business experience in online games. It also has content for global expansion using the spread of K-culture. However, as weaknesses (W), it does not have core intellectual property rights for new technologies such as planoptics, VR, and AR, and lacks international success experience in platform business. In addition, there is a lack of creative device development due to device manufacturing centered on large corporations, and there are no software and content companies that can lead the global market.

Accordingly, there is a threat (T) factor. The dependence on foreign products for content creation tools is high, and the country has lost its leadership by failing to participate in global alliances/collaborations that overcome industry barriers. In particular, it is unable to respond to low-price policies, large-scale markets, and rapid technological pursuit by latecomer countries such as China, and there are concerns about Chinese capital preemptively acquiring and absorbing excellent Korean companies.

However, there are also opportunities (O). New ICT technology paradigms are changing with HMD/transparent devices, and demand for new forms of content such as VR convergence and multi-screen screening is increasing. There are market opportunities due to the explosive growth of the Chinese content market, and Chinese capital investment in Korean content companies is also acting as a factor of expectation.

Accordingly, the government is moving to preempt the global new market by building a digital content ecosystem. The goal is to achieve a technological gap with advanced countries within one year by 2022 and foster more than 20 digital content technology powerhouses (annual sales of 10 billion won or more) to achieve sales of 65 trillion won in the digital content industry by 2022.

To this end, we have presented key research and development areas for each field. For realistic content, we plan to develop a tracker for real-time image synthesis in arbitrary space and a real-time ultra-high-resolution image segmentation transmission server.

Supporting promising VR convergence new industries, creating new markets, and building ecosystems

Interaction contents include ▲See Through type display-based augmented reality platform ▲multi-party Tele-Immersion VR system ▲human factor control system for virtual reality content, etc. In addition, in the field of emotional content, we will develop realistic content that recognizes five senses information and reproduces senses, and in the field of content distribution and service, we will focus on ▲HMD-Free VR/AR/MR content services ▲Cloud-based VR content production and transmission services for general users ▲Development of VR convergence application services, etc. For these R&D, the government will invest a similar budget every year starting with KRW 54 billion in 2017, and will invest KRW 327 billion by 2022.

CP Lee Jeong-jun said, “The digital content industry will strengthen the development of challenging original technologies, support promising VR convergence new industries, and create new markets and build ecosystems.” He added, “We plan to secure competitiveness by standardizing technologies and securing standard patents in new industrial fields, and foster personnel for VR/AR-based technology and advanced application development.”