Korean Metaverse Companies at CES 2024

I wandered the halls of the XR and Metaverse section of Central Hall at the LVCC last week, looking for signs of the Metaverse, and its second cousins web3 and Crypto, but they were nowhere to be found. Then, as I wandered a maze of Korean companies in Eureka Park, a mile away in the Sands Expo Center, I came upon a whole Metaverse pavilion.
 
The K-Metaverse Pavilion was organized by the Korean government agency NIPA which brought ten Korean XR companies to Las Vegas this year. The country has been touting public support for the Metaverse in recent years, including a set of investments in the metaverse totaling $177.1 million from 2022-2026 as part of its Digital New Deal 2.0. Three of the companies exhibiting in the Pavilion won a CES Innovation Award.
 
GLOBEPOINT develops XR learning content for professional training and education and has deployed projects in over 200 Korean schools with 30,000 pieces of content created by educators using its VRWare School, VRWare StoryBuilder, and Metaware tools. MetaEduSys builds custom education content, with projects deployed in 60 Korean schools and universities. At CES, they presented the app ‘VR Wildfire Education’, a virtual experiential learning tool designed to address the increase in global forest fires. This year, the company is working on an LMS for public education and a web-VR cross-platform for safety training and tourism.
 
Taking a more traditional view of XR in healthcare, Techvillage’s RehabWare is a digital rehabilitation device for the recovery of motor functions in stroke patients, with deployments at Seoul National University Hospital and the Asian Medical Center (Seoul). The K-Metaverse has included XR consumer fitness apps at its other events. At CES, I saw digital fitness company Human IT Solution. They offer T-ON FITNESS (an AI-based exercise program), T-ON PILATES (visualization meditation-based pilates), T-ON PROFIT (an bench press exercise program), and T-ON OS (a management system for deploying XR exercise and pilates programs in physical centers).
 
LBStech that aims to create a barrier-free urban environment for people with disabilities. Their G-EYE Plus is a walkway navigation for the visually impaired to navigate streets and public transportation, with deployments in Daejeon, Sejong, and Ho Chi Minh City.
 
Finally, Wave Company showcased their analytics supported smart apparel, ElecSuit, designed to optimize human movement. Their ElecSuit delivers electrical stimulation and haptic feedback for its users. Additionally, their TracMe smart fitness solution utilizes motion tracking sensors to enhance workout precision.


​Source: Forbes