June 22nd 2017 – Seoul
As part of the national effort to keep Seoul’s leading position among world’s top Smart Cities, last June the 21st, in the Republic of Korea’s capital was held the opening ceremony of the Seoul Incubation Hub, during which the SODA 119 Safety app was showcased.
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Introducing Korea’s Biggest Start-Up Incubator
Located in Seoul’s Mapo district, the Seoul Incubation Hub is an initiative led by the Seoul Metropolitan Government whose goal is to nest the country’s most promising start-ups. Since March 2017, over 700 start-ups competed to be part of the project but only 154 were lucky enough to be selected, among which our local partner SODA IOT.
During the opening ceremony and in presence of Mr Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul and Chairman of SMBA (Small & Medium Business Administration), Mr Juman Kim, CEO of SODA IOT, introduced a unique safety mobile application, the SODA 119 Safety mobile app, providing real-time automatic notifications’ service to retail owners based on the phones’ detection technology known as LBASense. Referring to the Korean emergency phone number “119”, similar to the USA’s “911”, the SODA 119 mobile app aims at becoming a nation-wide security tool.
While developing more connected infrastructures as part of the global Smart City impetus, Government officials and City planners are also focusing greatly on reinforcing national safety measures in public areas. In this context, SODA IOT has built a mobile app whose aim is to provide a simple and automatic monitoring tool for retailers to know in real-time their crowd’s location.
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Saving Lives Thanks to IoT
Simply plugged into the power and connected to the Internet, LBASense Wi-Fi phone detectors transfer data to the Cloud, allowing to retrieve almost simultaneously Crowd Analytics insights via a mobile app.
For example, a shop owner in a mall can use this app to monitor the visitors’ real-time footfall in his premises in a completely passive way, as no action is required from the visitors who are detected simply through the anonymous signals generated by their mobile phone.
In case of emergency evacuation, since the SODA 119 mobile app can be directly connected to the fire station, firefighters get to know if anyone is still trapped in the building.
Introduced in Busan last May during the Disaster Safety Industry Forum, LBASense technology demonstrates it can be a promising tool to anonymously yet soundly track mobile phones during emergencies, in order to enhance security and safety global plans.
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Photo credits: Featured image Seoul by Jenny Kim, licensed under Creative Commons Zero; opening ceremony photo: all rights reserved to SODA IOT, all others images, all rights reserved to DFRC.