Pilot support of LED lights equipped with smart IoT sensors, innovation technology for people

KT announced on the 22nd that it held a 3rd anniversary commemoration event at the Dongja Hope Sharing Center located in Yongsan-gu. The event was attended by KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Director Jung Su-hyun of the Seoul Station Single-Room Dwelling Counseling Center, and approximately 100 residents of the Dongja-dong single-room dwelling area.

After the commemoration ceremony, Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu and Mayor Park Won-soon personally visited single-room dwelling households to distribute low-power compact refrigerator-warmers. The refrigerator-warmer has an 18-liter capacity and was selected as a support item considering the characteristics of narrow single-room dwellings and the burden of electricity bills. Approximately 35% of single-room dwelling households in Seoul had been living without refrigerators even during hot weather due to limited space and concerns about electricity costs. KT and Seoul City will distribute refrigerator-warmers to a total of approximately 1,100 households in single-room dwelling areas not only in Dongja-dong but also in Donui-dong, Dongdaemun, Namdaemun, and Yeongdeungpo regions.

KT has taken steps to realize 'innovation technology for people' for single-room dwelling residents. KT provided LED lights equipped with self-manufactured smart IoT sensors on a pilot basis to 80 elderly households living alone in single-room dwellings. The smart IoT sensor is expected to help prevent deaths from loneliness among elderly people living alone through motion detection functionality (notification to social workers when there is no movement for an extended period). In addition, it features text-to-voice automatic conversion (TTS) and emergency bell functions, enabling public announcements and emergency information dissemination. As LED lights, the electricity bill burden has been further reduced.



Additionally, approximately 60 volunteer members from approximately 20 KT Group affiliate company employees conducted volunteer activities such as painting murals on deteriorated walls surrounding Dongja-dong single-room dwelling areas.

The Dongja Hope Sharing Center, which opened in June 2014, is a complex community space equipped with living convenience facilities for single-room dwelling residents for whom laundry and shower access is difficult, as well as cultural facilities such as an IPTV room and IT café.

At the IT café of the Dongja Hope Sharing Center, residents are participating as baristas, and various job opportunities are being created through IT education and startup activities. Last year, the center achieved results by having residents manufacture 'sock dolls' using the KT Wiz baseball team character from unusable socks with holes, selling approximately 5,000 units. This year, residents are directly manufacturing and selling summer arm sleeves while nurturing dreams of self-reliance.

Furthermore, the center, with support from KT and Seoul City, is working to improve the living environment of the single-room dwelling area through creating a new dream children's park, painting murals, and cultivating plants, while operating a volunteer safety patrol independently to build a safe community.

KT plans to model positive resident change cases from digital divide resolution education for Dongja-dong single-room dwelling residents and expand education to single-room dwelling residents in other regions in the second half of the year.

KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu said, "Seeing the faces of single-room dwelling residents much brighter than three years ago, it appears that the efforts of Seoul City, Seoul Station Single-Room Dwelling Counseling Center, and KT employees have borne fruit to some extent," and added, "Going forward, we will continue to make efforts so that single-room dwelling residents can have greater hope."