Resolving the inconveniences of the visually impaired through 'U+ Our Home AI Service'
It is important to make the latest technology accessible to marginalized neighbors.

LG Uplus announced that it has produced a video of its CSR activities through the 'U+ Our Home AI Service' to address the difficulties faced by visually impaired people in using touch and video-centric smart technologies.

In this video, Jo Hyun-young, a mother with a Grade 1 visual impairment raising an 8-month-old child, and her son Choi Yu-seong appear to express the inconveniences of daily life as a visually impaired person and how their lives have changed thanks to the 'U+ Our Home AI Service'.

In the video, Jo Hyun-young demonstrates the difficulties of having to locate and touch buttons for childcare appliances using only her fingertips. Having experienced such inconveniences, Ms. Jo comes to experience easier childcare through the service. 'U+ Our Home AI' allows her to manage alarms for Yuseong's meals and medicine times via voice, and enables her to check fine dust concentration information and simultaneously control the indoor environment with a single voice command, even while caring for Yuseong. In addition, it also includes a scene where a storybook for Yuseong is read aloud simply without any additions.

Jo Hyun-young, the protagonist of the video, shared her thoughts on her changed daily life, saying, “As a parent of a visually impaired child, I always felt sorry for not being able to do more for my child, but thanks to the ‘U+ Our Home AI Service,’ I have been able to bond with my child and enjoy the joys of everyday life.”

This video was planned by LG Uplus based on interviews with actual visually impaired individuals since the end of last year, focusing on the fact that they are excluded from using smart technology.

In particular, it identified a paradoxical problem: while we now live in a convenient world where we can easily find information and turn on and off not only home appliances but also smart devices throughout the house with a single touch, it has actually become more difficult for the visually impaired, who cannot see and require assistance, to find even a single touch-sensitive button on appliances.

'U+ Our Home AI' received favorable reviews from a test group of visually impaired individuals, noting that features such as the ability to search for various information and content via voice and IoT functions that allow users to turn household devices on and off simultaneously with a single command greatly help to make the lives of visually impaired households more convenient.

Based on this, LG Uplus provided 'U+ Our Home AI' to 500 households of the visually impaired through the 'Korea Federation of the Blind' to support IT devices that the visually impaired, who are excluded from smart devices, truly need.

Kim Hee-jin, Head of Brand Strategy Team at LG Uplus, said, “I came to realize that U+ Our Home AI is a service that greatly helps resolve the contradiction of exclusion from IT and smart technologies experienced by the visually impaired.”“It was a meaningful project where, while preparing this video, I realized that making technology available to our marginalized neighbors is just as important as developing faster and more advanced communication technology,” he said.

Meanwhile, LG Uplus is garnering empathy with videos based on real stories, such as the episode featuring hearing-impaired barista Yoon Hye-ryeong, the episode on multicultural families titled "Mom's Class," and the episode on elderly people living alone titled "Grandma's Knitting," by viewing socially marginalized neighbors with a warm perspective.