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Global Business: The Ambitious Korea

Korean robot

15/03/2014

The Ambitious Korea

BBC World Service - Global Business, The Ambitious Korea

The robots who care for dementia patients

The robots who care for dementia patients and movie downloads in a second. This is the future that South Korea is investing in. Peter Day reports.

South Korea has rapidly become one of the most advanced internet connected places in the world, with the fastest connections. Early on, it was the government that identified the benefits this would have for businesses and invested significantly in the infrastructure needed. This meant South Koreans were early adopters of voip-calling, a forefather of services such as Skype, and created the first social network in the world.  But, they say, they failed to export these businesses because the rest of the world’s internet was too slow.

Korea is now focusing on 5G or fifth generation mobile – aiming to be world leaders in this technology by 2020. It would enable movies to be downloaded in a second for example and transmit live holograms of people. 

Another sector the South Korean government is hedging its bets on as an area of growth is service robotics. This programme explores the brave new world of robots looking after autistic children and dementia patients, as well as being a common feature in our homes.

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