A group of researchers from Korea and Brazil have developed a kit that can diagnose the Zika virus with just one or two drops of blood, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning on Wednesday. The Zika virus, which can be spread by the Aedes mosquito, has swept through large parts of Latin America in recent months. It is blamed for severe birth defects. The BioNano Health Guard Research Center, a health care research organization under the Science Ministry, health care firm Ge

SK Holdings C&C, an information technology services firm, said it plans to accelerate its push to transform into a data service company that provides tailored IT services by utilizing up-to-date artificial intelligence and big data technologies.“The emergence of new technology is accelerating digital transformation and disruption across a wide range of industries,” said Lee Ho-soo, chief technology officer of SK Holdings C&C, at a press meeting in Seoul on Wednesday. SK Holdings C&C’s head offic

Telecommunications network operator KT has been trying to bring homegrown network technologies to the global market.In line with such efforts, the Seoul-based telecom firm participated in CommunicAsia 2016, a telecom trade show held through Friday in Singapore, along with some of its partner companies. Jung Seok-keun (first from right), chief executive of Korea Optron, poses with Benjamin Ong, CEO of fiber optic products company Masstron, after signing a contract at the CommunicAsia trade show i

LG Electronics’ top executives, including CEO Cho Seong-jin, visit an Ethiopian village, 60 kilometers away from Addis Ababa, as part of the firm’s global corporate social responsibility programs last week. The tech firm has run the support program LG Hope Community there since 2012, helping villagers improve infrastructure and cultivate land.　(LGE)

Tech giant Samsung Electronics said Tuesday that it has started mass producing a compact solid-state drive that is three times faster -- but much smaller in size -- than the average SSD product.The new storage product, dubbed the Nonvolatile Memory Express PCle SSD, or NVMe SSD for short, features an extremely compact package containing all essential SSD components, including NAND flash memory, DRAM and controller, while delivering outstanding performance, according to the tech firm.The compact

Mobile messenger operator Kakao started its chauffeur service, KakaoDriver, in Korea on Tuesday.Through the KakaoDriver mobile application, subscribers are able to use the chauffeur service, including requesting for the service as well as payment, according to the Korean company. Mobile messenger firm Kakao rolls out chauffeur service KakaoDriver in Korea on Tuesday. (Kakao)Smartphone users can use the service after they accept some terms and conditions and register their credit cards on the app

Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics’ television lineup has been recognized as the best TV brand of the year by U.K. consumer magazine Which?, the company said Monday.The consumer magazine, which provides product reviews of consumer electronics, has awarded consumer electronics brands every year since 2007 through a series of rigorous research and product tests. Robert King, an executive at Samsung Electronics’ U.K. branch, receives an award at the best brand award held by U.K. magazine Which?

Network operator SK Telecom said Monday that it has completed the installation of Korea’s first network exclusively dedicated to the Internet of Things services across Daegu City.The IoT network, called the long-range wide area network or simply LoRa network, covers the entire city to provide connected services for the public. SK Telecom technicians work on a base station for the long-range wide area network in Daegu City. (SKT)SKT expects the IoT businesses to gain further momentum when the cit

Global semiconductor players on Thursday released a joint statement in Seoul agreeing to work together to advance semiconductor technology over the next decades. SK hynix CEO Park Sung-wook (third from right) and other members of the World Semiconductor Council pose after signing the Seoul Declaration to promote the global chip industry`s growth. (KSIA)The representatives from China, Taiwan, the European Union, Japan, the U.S. and Korea gathered on Tuesday at the general meeting of the World Sem

Tech giant Samsung Electronics rolled out another film-inspired mobile phone on Friday, continuing its years-long marketing efforts to boost sales of its flagship smartphones through collaboration with filmmakers.This time, the Korean smartphone maker released a Batman-themed smartphone, the Galaxy S7 edge Injustice Edition, in partnership with movie production company Warner Bros. and entertainment firm DC Entertainment, aiming to lure fans of the superhero movie.The release is also aimed at co

SK hynix CEO Park Sung-wook gives a welcome speech at a reception for the annual meeting of the World Semiconductor Council, a global institute for the world’s semiconductor industry, at the Shraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday. Around 100 CEOs and top executives of chip companies, including Samsung Electronics, Intersil and GlobalFoundries, took part in the meeting held at the hotel on Thursday. (SK hynix)

Cable TV operator CJ HelloVision said Thursday that it has signed a partnership deal with Vietnamese cable TV firm Saigontourist Cable Television, or SCTV, to export its broadcasting technology to Vietnam. Through the partnership, the Korean cable TV company will introduce its cloud-based broadcasting solutions, gigabit Internet services, UHD TV broadcasting technology and N-Screen -- a service which makes media content available on any digital device -- in Vietnam’s pay TV segment for the next

The total number of patents that tech giant Samsung Electronics holds in the U.S. increased by more than fifteen times over the past nine years, according to the company on Thursday.Samsung’s patents registered at the U.S. patent office stood at 38,809 last year, up from 2,457 in 2007. An individual uses Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S7. (Yonhap)In 2015 alone, Samsung obtained 5,072 patents in the nation, the second highest after tech firm IBM. Since 2006, Samsung has been the second most prolific

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday hinted that it might file a counter-suit against Huawei, which has sued the Korean company in the U.S. and China for infringing its technology patents. “We will take countermeasures, including a lawsuit (against Huawei),” Ahn Seong-ho, head of Samsung’s intellectual property division, told reporters after a weekly meeting of Samsung CEOs in Seoul. Samsung Group headquarters (Yonhap)His comment came after the Chinese equipment giant filed patent suits in Californi

Fingerprint module maker CrucialTec and smart card firm Kona-I said Wednesday that they have developed a plastic card fitted with a fingerprint module, which the partners said would help beef up the security of financial transactions.The credit card will allow users to directly identify themselves by scanning their fingerprints on the biometric module installed in the 0.84-millimeter plastic card.Fingerprint module maker CrucialTec and smart card firm Kona-I roll out a credit card installed with

Network operator KT has joined forces with four local companies to grow the sector for connected bicycles, the company said Wednesday.The network firm and its four partners -- bike-maker Alton Sports, credit card firm BC Card, security firm KT Telecop, and insurance firm Dongbu Insurance -- signed a memorandum of understanding for the initiative in Seoul on the day.They will develop a solution that tracks down the locations of the so-called Internet-of-Things bicycles equipped with alarm sensors

Living in a world without language barriers is not a far-fetched idea at all thanks to technological advancement, according to a big data expert in linguistic analysis. “It would be fair to say that translation technology for written language is now fully mature, and translation solutions for written language -- not for spoken language though -- are widely deployed in both the public and private sectors,” said Lea Jong-ho, chief technology officer of Seoul-headquartered translation and interpret

Competition to take the lead in standardizing imaging technology in the TV sector intensifies as two groups for different tech standards make all-out marketing efforts to win the race.The HDR technology improves contrast ratio and color accuracy. In layman’s term, it helps TVs generate brightness and darkness better and display more real-life colors.Leading the HDR war are the two tech standards -- HDR10, an open-platform standard adopted by a number of firms including Samsung and Dolby Vision,

Korean display-makers Samsung Display and LG Display will flex their technological muscles at SID’s Display Week 2016, an annual trade show to be held from Tuesday to Thursday, in San Francisco.The display business unit of Samsung Group will showcase a host of futuristic products including organic light-emitting diode displays that can be rolled or folded, OLED displays for virtual reality gadgets and vehicles, and hologram technology. Samsung Display will showcase a rollable display at the SID

SEOGWIPO, Jejudo Island -- Although Korean animations boast impressive quality, matching those of the U.S. and Japan, the nation lacks large-scale animation studios that have expertise in both production and distribution for the global market.In order to make up for the shortage and vitalize the domestic animation industry, the Ministry of Science, IT and Future Planning and the Jejudo Island government launched the Asia CGI Animation Center, or ACA, an incubation center for animators, in Seogwi