Seven Strange Ways Technology is integrated in South Korea
Considering so many electronic companies (Samsung and LG I’m talking about you) are based out of South Korea I was expecting that Seoul (the capital city) would be some kind of sci-fi like cityscape, with towering buildings, holograms and jetpacks available for all (OK, maybe not the jetpacks). Instead I found a city- a country, really- full of eccentricities and contradictions with higgledy piggledy street vendors lying side by side flashing billboards and skyscrapers; and ancient pagodas resting in their shadow!
South Korea does seem technologically advanced when compared to London and the USA, but the technological advances are subtle rather than in your face teleporting chutes and holographic manifestations (Yes, a little Futurama inspired here).
I’m going to share some of the ways South Korea impressed me techwise- and how it was more about a combination of all the little things than anything big that made it stand out as advanced.
Fingerprint scanning lockers at all stations
When you arrive in a big city the last thing you want to do is lug your luggage around- especially if you’re only staying for a night. South Korea offered banks of lockers at all the train stations I visited (from the capital Seoul to the cities of Daegu and Busan) where you could store your luggage for 24 hours for the approximate price of 80p. What took these lockers up a tech step was the fact that once you’d inserted your money you didn’t get a key or a code for the locker- you had to place your FINGER on their scanning device and it then ‘locked’ the locker. Read more…
