Replacing electric sensors with optical sensors eliminates the need to build a separate monitoring system.

KT and the Korea Association of Safety Diagnosis of Facilities signed a business agreement at the KT building in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, to jointly promote the 'SOC facility safety service based on Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analysis' to strengthen safety for aging facilities over 30 years old and vulnerable facilities.

Through this agreement, KT and the Safety Diagnosis Association plan to cooperate in areas such as ▲promoting joint projects for proactive safety response based on real-time monitoring of SOC facilities, ▲developing algorithms to predict repair/reinforcement timing using big data analysis technology, and ▲discovering new business models for real-time facility safety based on IoT.

The Safety Diagnosis Association was established in 1995 under the 'Special Act on Safety Management of Facilities,' and its approximately 900 member companies possess the legal authority to conduct safety diagnoses on over 80,000 facilities, along with decades of on-site management know-how. KT plans to actively contribute to strengthening public safety by expanding IoT sensor-based real-time safety monitoring, which was previously applied only to some large-scale SOC facilities, to facilities managed by the Safety Diagnosis Association that are over 30 years old or have revealed vulnerabilities through safety diagnoses.

The biggest advantage of KT's facility safety service is that it allows users to replace electric sensors with optical sensors and utilize KT's facility safety platform without the need to build a separate monitoring system. In addition, based on big data analysis, the timing of repairs and reinforcements to facilities can be predicted, allowing for a reduction in construction and operation costs by up to 50%.

Song Jae-ho, Head of KT’s Integrated Security Business Unit, stated, “With IoT sensor-based facility safety management expanding, particularly in developed countries, it is highly significant that KT, the nation’s leading ICT company, and the Korea Association of Facility Safety Diagnosis, representing specialized facility safety diagnostic firms, have joined forces to develop an advanced model in the field of facility safety management. We expect that this collaboration will complete a sophisticated facility safety management system, enabling the public to lead more comfortable and safer lives.”

Park Ju-kyung, President of the Korea Association of Facility Safety Diagnosis, stated, “With facility safety threats such as building aging and earthquakes increasing, we have continuously contemplated in the field the necessity of securing a preventive safety system rather than a reactive one. I am pleased to have this opportunity to collaborate on a proactive safety system by utilizing KT’s advanced ICT technology.” The President added, “We will continue to cooperate in various fields, including lobbying the government to formalize real-time facility safety services into policy.”

Meanwhile, KT carried out an IoT-based facility safety management project for three aging bridges and two public parking lots in Daegu in 2017, and plans to establish a 'Smart Earthquake Disaster Prevention System' in 10 elementary, middle, and high schools and one library in Heunghae-eup, Pohang in 2018 to monitor abnormal conditions of facilities in real time and set up an immediate response system for earthquakes and disasters.