- Digital technology to merge with safety to address issues in workplaces, living areas, and catastrophic situations
- Korea to secure materials that endure extreme environments
Digital technology to merge with safety to address issues in workplaces, living areas, and catastrophic situations
Korean Government announced the Digital Measures to improve the Citizen Safety, which is jointly established by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Environment. In order to enhance the safety management capacity of Korea, the government will converge and utilize the digitally innovative technologies in workplaces, living areas, and catastrophic situations.
Recently, with the acceleration of digital innovation, leading-edge safety services became possible to monitor the inaccessible dangerous districts and predict, response, and remote control the risks. Thus, Korean government drew up these measures to establish the digital safety industries and effectively response to the catastrophes.
1. Safety in the workplaces – Avoiding hazards in the workplaces with digital safety technologies
Korea will secure the safety in the field site of manufacture, logistics, construction, and emotional services using ultra-low latency 5G network and IoT sensors. Also, a digital safety system will be built for industry clusters, closed workplaces and labs, and marine sites to prevent highly hazardous risks. MSIT will collaborate with the Ministry of Employment and Labor to discover the new digital safety services and to support the adoption of such services for businesses with 50 or less employees.
2. Safety in the living areas – Forming digital safety net to tackle the blind spots
Korea will secure the golden hours of rescue in the indoor emergencies such as indoor fire or stalking crimes by establishing a precise indoor positioning system. Also, digital technologies will help prevent safety blind spots by sensing abnormal activities without privacy intrusion. Ultra-wideband and GPS technologies will realize ‘safe streets’ by sensing crimes, and help safe return home for elderly dementia patients and young children.
3. Safety in the catastrophic situations – Managing risks for various catastrophes
The digital based risk management system will be reinforced in order to respond properly to various catastrophes including disasters caused by the climate change. MSIT will collaborate with the Ministry of Environment to minimize the damages of natural disasters. To respond to floods, digital twin technology will predict the scale of the damage and AI technology will help the decision making for evacuation and water release. In cases of sudden and torrential downpour in urban areas, the system will be demonstrated to help damage prediction and public evacuation. For wildfires, government will support establishment of AI fire monitoring system. Also, government will secure the stability of nation’s essential infrastructures for preemptive management of physical accidents and network breakdowns using sensors and AI technologies.
4. Building the infrastructure – Building strong foundation through private-public cooperation
MSIT will collaborate with the Ministry of Interior and Safety in supports for the establishment of the shared platform for safety data and AI learning data. ‘Mid-to-long term Technology Development Roadmap’ will be drawn up to form and operate the private sector committee to standardize and discuss the regulation improvements.
Minister Lee Jong-Ho of Science and ICT expressed the positive outlook that this digital safety model will minimize the safety blind spots and strengthen the public safety in workplaces, living areas, and catastrophic situations. He added, “MSIT will make full-fledged efforts in converging and utilizing the digital technologies in safety sectors to make society more safe.”
Korea to secure materials that endure extreme environments
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT, Minister: Lee Jong-Ho) announced that the “Project to Build Foundation of Extreme Materials Demonstration Research” (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Project’) passed the preliminary feasibility study and will be pursued from 2023.
The ‘extreme materials’ refer to the materials that endure extreme environments such as high and low temperatures, high pressure, highly corrosive conditions which can be used in space satellite launch vehicles, storing liquid hydrogen, and high pressure gas turbine. The importance of the extreme materials is increasing since the industries are stretching and dealing with extreme environments.
Although the government has been supporting the basic research of such materials, Korea experienced some difficulties in commercializing or industrializing the materials due to the lack of foundation. The Project aims to resolve the difficulties by forming foundation for the demonstration of the materials so that the researchers and companies can all benefit. By the year 2028, Korea will secure 10 or more world-class materials that endures extreme environments and will develop 60 prototypes of the materials that passed the demonstration.
