BUSAN — The city of Busan is upgrading local companies' innovative products into market-ready goods through a "living lab," in which residents use startup products and services directly and suggest improvements.
The Busan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation held a meeting of its Solution Living Lab operating committee the previous day and selected four participating companies as eligible for item-improvement funding, the city and the center said on the 25th.
Under the Solution Living Lab program, residents who are the actual users test a startup's products and services and offer opinions, which the company then reflects in product improvements. The program differs from existing startup-support programs in that it can verify marketability and social impact at the same time by connecting citizen demand to business items.
A panel of 24 residents taking part in the program used the products and services firsthand and pointed out inconveniences and areas for improvement. The operating committee reviewed whether the residents' opinions had been incorporated and whether each company's improvement plan was appropriate, and confirmed all four companies as recipients.
The selected companies are Songgang Networks' Internet of Things (IoT) alert service for priority seats for pregnant passengers, Arc International's artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart pole for pedestrian safety, LMSS's fall-protection smart airbag vest, and The Face's smart dry room for pets.
Each company will receive up to about 10 million won in item-improvement funding to pursue prototype production, product and service improvements, and marketing and commercialization. The improvement work will run from August through November. The center plans to review the results in November and December to confirm whether the residents' opinions were reflected in the actual products and services.
Through the living lab, the center aims to build a virtuous cycle in which residents take part directly in solving local problems and startups reflect actual users' needs in product development. Going forward, it plans to expand smart-city services that residents can feel the benefit of and to accelerate the revitalization of the local innovation ecosystem.
"The opinions that residents offered while using the products themselves played an important role in helping companies review their items from the actual user's perspective," an official at the center said. "We will actively support follow-up upgrades so that residents' voices lead to real service improvements and the creation of social value."
