Joint Construction of Smart Home with IPTV, IoT, and AI Speaker

LG Uplus has announced that it will join forces with Naver to construct an AI smart home and usher in an era of leadership in the home media service sector.

LG Uplus held a meeting at its Seoul Yongsan headquarters attended by Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo and Naver CEO Han Seong-sook, among other key executives, and announced that it will jointly establish a state-of-the-art AI smart home by converging IPTV and IoT, core home services, with AI speakers based on Naver's AI platform 'Clova'.

LG Uplus Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo stated, "Through the business cooperation between the two companies, LG Uplus has strengthened its competitive advantage in IPTV and IoT businesses, while Naver has secured a foothold to expand its user base and enhance platform competitiveness in a short period," and emphasized, "We will emerge as a strong player in the home media market together with Naver, which possesses the best technology in the artificial intelligence field."

Naver CEO Han Seong-sook, who attended the meeting, stated, "Through this partnership with LG Uplus, Naver's AI platform 'Clova' has expanded its scope further," and added, "Naver will continue to work with 'Clova' partners to provide users with new conveniences and value through the use of artificial intelligence."

Vice Chairman Kwon explained at the meeting, "We have become the world's first to surpass 1 million family subscribers for home IoT," and continued, "Home IoT, which holds a dominant number-one position with a 71% subscriber share, is expanding its ecosystem through 25 affiliated companies and diverse business models, and we have decided to apply home IoT to new apartments and officetel projects of 46 construction companies."

He further stated, "IPTV is also recording the top ranking in net subscriber share. The 'Kids Land' service launched last September surpassed 20 million views just three months after launch, and we are continuously strengthening competitiveness through content differentiation."

LG Uplus and Naver 'Clova' Create 'U+Our Home AI'

LG Uplus has introduced 'U+Our Home AI', an artificial intelligence smart home service that applies its domestic number-one home IoT and growth-leading IPTV, along with diverse affiliated content, to Naver's AI platform Clova.

The strategy is to enhance Naver's self-developed AI speaker 'Friends' with LG Uplus technology to create 'Friends⁺ (Plus)' and apply the concentrated technology of both companies to the U+tv set-top box, then rapidly spread it to the market based on LG Uplus's distribution network and home customer base.

U+Our Home AI features five differentiated core functions: ▲U+tv (IPTV) VOD search that finds content by keywords even without knowing the title ▲Our home IoT that turns on and off simultaneously with a single voice command ▲Naver search by voice ▲24-hour native English teacher for our children ▲Shopping where everything from ordering to payment can be done by voice.

U+tv VOD Search That Finds Content by Keywords Even Without Knowing the Title
U+Our Home AI allows convenient searching of U+tv VOD through the newly introduced AI speaker 'Friends⁺' or U+tv remote control.

For example, even if you don't know the VOD title, by saying keywords such as genre, actor, director, or release period like "a movie that brings tears" or "a 90s movie with Brad Pitt," it easily finds the desired movie or TV content.

If you ask about something while watching TV, the search results linked with the extensive Naver database are visualized on the TV screen with images and text, and basic controls such as U+tv set-top box power ON/OFF, channel change, and volume adjustment are also possible.

Existing U+tv subscribers can also enjoy AI services through automatically upgraded set-top boxes after December 20 (UHD2 set-top) and mid-January (UHD1 set-top).

Our Home IoT That Turns On and Off Simultaneously with a Single Voice Command
U+Our Home AI also enables simultaneous control of various types of home IoT products. Among approximately 40 types of LG Uplus IoT devices, frequently used products in the home such as lighting, switches, plugs, air conditioners, humidifiers, air purifiers, and robot vacuums are linked with the speaker, allowing multiple devices to operate simultaneously with a single voice command.

In addition to commands used in existing AI speaker and IoT linked services such as "away mode" and "sleep mode," services can be used with natural conversational commands such as "sleep" and "going out."

For example, when you say "Clova, tell home IoT that I'm going to sleep," the sleep mode activates, turning off the TV (plug) and lighting (switch) while the humidifier operates. When leaving home, saying "Clova, tell home IoT that I'm going out" automatically locks and turns off the gas valve, lighting, humidifier, and air conditioner.

LG Uplus plans to continuously expand IoT services capable of simultaneous control and continue linking newly released IoT products with AI services.

Naver Search by Voice
U+Our Home AI leverages the extensive database of Naver and the AI platform 'Clova,' which boasts Korea's highest-level speech recognition rate and natural language processing performance.

Based on rich search results, even to continuous questions like "Tell me about Tyrannosaurus," "How long did Tyrannosaurus live?" and "What did Tyrannosaurus eat?" it answers all the way through, making it useful for households with young children.

From the second question onward, it provides answers without having to call the wake word (Clova) each time, allowing for natural conversation flow.

24-Hour Native English Teacher for Our Children
U+Our Home AI is equipped with Naver's AI translation service 'Papago' engine and supports translation in three languages: English, Chinese, and Japanese. Going beyond simply listening to information provided by the speaker, it also offers English conversation functionality through the "Let's speak English" command.

In line with service launch, LG Uplus has partnered with Korea's largest English education company 'YBM' and applied specialized educational programs such as 'Phonics (English Songs)', 'Beginner English', 'Basic English', and 'Daily 5-Minute English' to U+Our Home AI.

With commands like "Start YBM Phonics" and "What is 'many hands make light work' in English?" and "Let's speak English" for advanced adult free-talking, customized learning is possible, making it a worthy '24-hour native English teacher.'

Shopping Where Everything from Ordering to Payment Can Be Done by Voice
U+Our Home AI enables shopping where ordering to payment can all be done by voice. Customers can purchase a variety of daily necessities and groceries from LG Household & Health Care and GS Retail, affiliated partners of LG Uplus, at prices lower than market rates (LG Household & Health Care Shop) with same-day delivery (GS Fresh).

Unlike existing products where only mobile gift card affiliated products or speaker-exclusive products could be purchased, through U+Our Home AI, all products directly sold by LG Household & Health Care Shop and GS Fresh can be purchased.

Auto-payment with a previously registered card is convenient, and security has been enhanced by allowing customers to set their own shopping password.

LG Uplus considers U+Our Home AI a very important element in completing smart homes and provides the AI speaker Friends⁺ on remarkably favorable terms to provide more IPTV and home IoT users with new and convenient service experiences.

For customers who want to purchase the Friends⁺ speaker as a single unit, LG Uplus will begin selling the product on its IoT online homepage (www.uplusiotshop.com) from the 20th at 129,000 won.

Meanwhile, LG Uplus plans to sell self-developed AI speakers through its homepage in addition to Friends⁺. The main features are identical to Friends⁺ and the price is 149,000 won.