SEOUL, South Korea -- Motorola Inc., the world's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer, held an opening ceremony yesterday in Seoul, South Korea for a new research and development (R&D) center, reports Yonhap. The center, called The Wireless Solutions Research (WSR) laboratory, will develop technologies for ubiquitous sensor networks (USN).
USN refers to a network in which all electronics devices can be connected without wires. It can be used in various fields such as home automation and environmental monitoring in areas beyond human reach.
According to Motorola, the WSR will conduct advanced research and engineering for future Motorola Products as part of Motorola Labs. The lab is leading research collaboration between Motorola and Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) with a research focus on developing, prototyping, and deploying advanced distributed sensor network technologies for applications that are closely aligned with Korea's Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) USN infrastructure strategy.
The move comes after the U.S. company and South Korea's state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) signed a deal on the matter this summer.
A Motorola official said the South Korean government will provide financial subsidies for the company's research activities.
"The center will create synergies in that it can combine Motorola's merits in the USN area and ETRI's know-how in applications," an Information and Communication Ministry official said.