April 20, 2005
Cell Phones to Chat With Owners
Are you bored? Well, now you can solve that problem by chatting with your cellular phone, according to Kim Tae-gyu reporting for The Korea Times.
ST Telecom, the nation's foremost mobile operator, yesterday said it launched a new service called 1 millimeter, which can intelligently interact with cell phone users.
"Our subscribers can select a character image on the screen of their cell phone. The character is a new user interface, smart enough to talk with people via text," SK telecom spokeswoman Kim Hye-jin said.
She said the commercial title "1 millimeter" describes the intimacy provided by the cell phone character, which learns how to closely interact with its owner.
The character can perfectly understand almost all ungrammatical sentences, as long as users type in words correctly. When the phone cannot understand, it will ask and remember what it means for next time," Kim claimed.
Currently, the sophisticated digital character can be installed in three cell phone models: SD340 and SD870 of LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics' SCH-V650. To allow this new service to take off, SK Telecom plans to introduce about 25 new models capable of providing this personalized service.
The new character is also designed to play other roles such as search engine or help in finding directions.
[...] "We are preparing for more advanced service, providing highly customized features. Then, the cell phone will talk to you first," she said.
Yoon gave an example: cell phones will ask users whether or not to download newly available music files, sung by the user's favorite singers.
Press Release (in Korean).
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