SK Telecom to unveil AI hologram device as part of 5G strategy

SK Telecom AI technology focus
SK Telecom will unveil its artificial intelligence (AI) hologram device enabling users to talk to a digital assistant as part of its 5G strategy — at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona.

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HoloBox service allows users to communicate face-to-face with a virtual AI chatbot by combining SK Telecom’s AI platform NUGU with the next-generation media technology Hologram.

The avatar in HoloBox stays with the user even outside of the house. Users can call out the virtual character without HoloBox around them through Augmented Reality (AR) technology in their smartphones.

HoloBox understands the context of dialogue, and a hologram display that presents gestures and facial expressions, as well as a microphone with voice input and output feature.

A hologram is impossible to save or transfer in real-time through the current LTE network. 5G has a maximum speed of 20Gbps, which is 40-50 times faster than the current LTE speed of 400 to 500Mbps, and has 100 times greater capacity, making it suitable for hologram transmission.

The global hologram market is expected to grow at an average rate of 14 percent annual, rising to $34.8 billion in 2020, and $74.3 billion in 2025. The Korean market is also expected to grow to KRW 815.5 billion in 2020 and to KRW 1.49 trillion in 2025, according to Holography Technology and Market Trends by KIST Convergence Research Policy Center.