SK Telecom unveiled its own artificial intelligence-based home assistant dubbed 'Nugu', which recognizes voice commands in the Korean language. SK said at a presentation in Seoul it plans to collaborate with third-party enterprises to expand applications for the platform, to areas such as automobiles, wearable devices and humanoid robots.
The cylinder-shaped device consists of a speaker, microphone and processor parts. SK Telecom has tapped into the Astell & Kern sound tuning technology of its subsidiary iRiver to optimize the speaker unit's sound.
Once the device is connected to SK's cloud network through wireless internet, users can give verbal orders to make the device play music and control smart home devices such as air conditioners or thermostats. The company said it will improve the device with over-the-air updates to support more services such as its mobile navigation service T-map, online shopping and media services.
Users can also ask for information such as weather conditions, personal schedules and locating a smartphone. The device answers in the voice of a young female, and SK Telecom said it plan to offer more diverse voice options in the future.
SK plans to release Nugu's application programming interfaces (APIs) in the first half of next year. It will market the platform initially to consumers, with the Nugu device costing KRW 249,000 (USD 223.28) and the AI assistant service free of charge. Customers who buy it before the end of October will pay KRW 99,000, and the price is KRW 149,000 in November and December.
