The largest mobile operator in South Korea, SK Telecom, Wednesday unveiled NUGU, an Artificial Intelligence(AI)-based personal digital assistant that allows users to control home appliances and listen to music using voice commands. NUGU which means 'who' in Korean is powered with advanced voice recognition, natural language processing, and deep learning technology.
Users can get the 21.9 centimeter-tall cylinder-shaped NUGU to connect with smartphones, household appliances and other smart devices via home Wi-Fi network to turn on or turn off a device, check calendars and select a song or album.
The device is priced at 249,000 won (US$223) and already available in the market.
“Because voice UI (User Interface) is more natural than current touch UI and uses Cloud, it can make huge platforms by lowering prices of devices.” said Park In-hwan who is the head of SK Telecom. “We are planning to make NUGU as the interface that sends SK Telecom’s life-value platforms and services.”
The Operator has been developing natural language processing technologies since 2011 and has been accumulating for past 5 years boasts level of voice recognition that can understand Korean language and particular accent, tone, and even dialect.
