AR SERVICES ON SUBWAY TRAINS

[Anchor Lead]

5G-based augmented reality service using wireless communications equipment will be made available even in subway trains. This technology utilized a ‘backhaul’ system developed jointly by Korean and British researchers. The latest AR service is expected to be provided in Korea and the United Kingdom simultaneously after being demonstrated in the British metro system.

[Pkg]

A passenger on a subway train travellingat 60 kilometers per hour continues to watch a sneakers commercial on his mobile phone. What does he do if he wants to try them on in real life? He scans the QR code on the image with his mobile phone before looking at his feet while wearing a set of special goggles. Then the sneaker he wants appears on the screen. He can even pick his favorite color and see how that looks. This is augmented reality used in real life. Korea’s Electronic and Telecommunications Research Institute together with British engineers, demonstrated this 5G-based immersive augmented reality service using a ‘backhaul’ solution ‘Backhaul’ refers to a wireless communications technology that connects a base station to a device. The technology allows data to be transmitted at a low cost without optic cables or other equipment.
The current average download speed of LTE wireless LAN services provided by mobile carriers on the subway is 58.5 megabits per second. But the speed clocked in at 1.9 gigabits per second in this demonstration.

[Soundbite] Baek Seung-kwon(Network Research Division, ETRI) : "At the speed of 50 Mbps, only one person can use the service. But our technology can provide services to 30 people all at once."

This means that limitless high-qualit video streaming services can be enjoyed free of charge in moving vehicles and subway trains.

[Soundbite] Kim Il-gyu(Asst. VP, Future Mobile Communication Research Division, ETRI) : "This technology is expected to be used on high-speed trains or airplanes flying at 500 to 1,000 kilometers per hour as well as to service remote areas over long distances."

The researchers plan a similar demonstration in the British metro system next month before commercializing it in the two countries simultaneously.