The Electronics and Telecomm-unications Research Institute (ETRI) has developed a new concept eye track technology for user interface (UI)-based interaction, dubbed “Personal Knowledge Digest.”

ETRI announced the development of the technology on July 12, which will provide the information people want in the future by analyzing what people watch attentively and what they are interested in as well as electroencephalogram signals. It plans to complete an algorithm capable of collecting, analyzing, and predicting people’s life patterns by 2019, ETRI researchers said. 

The technology using augmented reality is the latest of the achievements ETRI has made so far in the R&D field. 

ETRI has proved to have excellent patent competiveness once again as the Korean research institution placed first among 237 renowned research institutions and governments around the world according to the 2011 Innovation Anchor Scorecard by the U.S. Patent Board, which was released this past April.

ETRI was established as a non-profit state-funded research institution under the umbrella of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. It is at a forefront of research and development of core and original technologies as well as convergence technologies, playing a pivotal role in the development of the national industries. 

Every year, the U.S. Patent Board evaluates and announces the rankings and analysis of the technology and patent competence in three categories °™ companies, research institutions, and governments °™ around the world in terms of their patents registered in the United States. The 2011 assessment was the first one to announce overall rankings of patent competitiveness integrating the categories based on technological power according to the board. 

ETRI scored 364.09 points in technological power to beat the runner-up, University of California, which received 341.88 points. It also placed first in terms of Patent Count at 537. ETRI’s rise to the top of the overall ranking may be construed as proof of being the world’s best in terms of both quality and quantity. ETRI also ranked first among 40 government-invested research institutions across the world in the 2010 evaluation of patent competitiveness. 

ETRI is synonymous with the breathtaking rise of Korea as one of the global IT powerhouses. The research institution has achieved its accomplishments from the development of the ICT sector including the development of TDX, a time division exchange system, in 1986; the commercialization of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), a digital telephony system in 1996; the development of WiBro, a wireless broadband Internet technology; and T-DMB (Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) in 2006.

ETRI was merely one of Korea’s several state-funded research institutes, but ETRI came into prominence in March 1986 when it succeeded in the localization of TDX. At that time, Korea was a backward telecommunication country, depending on inferior exchange system imports. Things changed with the development of TDX, which resulted in solving the backlog of telephone line applications at the time. The days were gone when “white telephones” were sold at a premium and an era of “one telephone per household” was ushered in, catapulting Korea to the status of prominent telecommunication powerhouse. 

ETRI built up the national IT R&D regime with the development of PCM Interface Apparatus in 1981; an 8-bit educational computer in 1983; IT infrastructure with the development of TDX-1 in 1986; 566 Mbps Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) in 1988; and 4M DRAM in 1988.

ETRI reached another milestone in 1996, 10 years after the development of TDX, with the commercialization of CDMA, initially developed by Qualcomm of the United States, which made Korea the CDMA leader, ushering in an era of “one mobile phone per person.” Even though domestic mobile telephone manufacturers pay technology royalties to QualComm, ETRI has received technology fees from the American company. ETRI took the initiative in the construction of the “information society” with the development of 16M-DRAM, TiCom, and TDX-10 in 1991. ETRI took the lead in the development of such core technologies as ATM exchange, CDMA, and IMT-2000.

Another decade later in 2006, ETRI accomplished another feat with the commercialization of WiBro, a mobile broadband service technology that can offer Internet services while on the move in a car running up to 100km per hour. WiBro, developed by ETRI together with Samsung Electronics, has helped Korea dominate the global mobile internet market. ETRI succeeded in the development of terrestrial DMB, WiBro in 2004 and UWB chipset and digital actor in 2005, helping Korea position itself as a global IT leader.

Of late, ETRI has developed the world’s top-rated 4G advanced mobile communication system, Long-Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced; a mobile Korean-English translation technology allowing free talking in English; the so-called transparent AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) for displaying high-resolution images in broad daylight; and the world’s first “smart shipbuilding technology” combining the IT and shipbuilding sectors.