The center of Seoul's city center is becoming a "test site."
The "Testbed Seoul" project, which helps companies with innovative technologies test technologies in real environments and seek to enter domestic and foreign markets based on the results, has entered the advanced stage.
Start-ups and small and medium-sized companies, which had excellent technology but lacked demonstration opportunities, have solved social problems through this project and succeeded in attracting investment and listing.

Angel Robotics Co., Ltd., which developed wearable robots, drew attention by demonstrating a walking assist robot for children with walking disabilities in cooperation with Seoul Children's Hospital.
In addition to establishing patient-specific walking training protocols, the company entered the KOSDAQ in 2024 through a listing of special technologies. Not only public institutions but also the private sector are continuing their achievements by delivering products.

Mirroroid Co., Ltd. has installed AI-based smart mirrors in its beauty lab along with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's Career Vocational Education Division and the Seoul Life Science High School to verify the function of recommending hairstyles and the possibility of linking education. The technology has emerged as a prime example of leading the advancement of K-beauty by winning the Innovation Award at CES 2024.
This year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will further expand its test bed business. More than half of all demonstration tasks are filled with artificial intelligence (AI) and AI convergence technologies.
The project, which was launched for the first time in the country in 2018, has so far selected a total of 206 projects and provided 68.3 billion won in demonstration costs, and this year, a total of 8 billion won will be invested to promote 40 projects.
In particular, it will focus on laying the foundation for global expansion this year. For the first time, overseas demonstrations have also been introduced, and three tasks will be demonstrated at foreign sites through accredited testing agencies with overseas branches.

In addition to expanding private and overseas empirical institutions, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has also established incentive systems such as "market commendation" to increase incentives to participate.
In addition, the existing 7 task types were reorganized into 5 types to increase the accessibility of companies to participate. The system is simplified centering on general tasks and overseas tasks, and demand-type tasks proposed by empirical institutions and public offering tasks proposed autonomously by companies will continue to operate.
Demonstrations are not just about testing technology. Companies that have completed the demonstration will be issued a "verification certificate" under the name of the Seoul mayor to serve as a gateway for registration of innovative products from the Public Procurement Service.
In addition, programs to participate in the fair and attract investment will also be supported. In fact, technologies such as AI self-driving robots (Yangcheon-gu Office) and companion animal biometric identification identification services (Gwanak-gu Office) are being put into administrative sites and contribute to improving citizens' convenience.
This year's first public offering (general project) will be available through the Seoul R&D Support Center website until April 21. The applicants are small and medium-sized companies based in Seoul, which only require them to have cutting-edge technologies such as AI, robots, and IoT.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has discovered and disclosed more than 60 demand tasks in advance, and it is also possible for companies to propose their own tasks. The demand task includes a number of technologies to solve urban problems, such as measuring the level of semi-underground flooding, self-driving cleaning cars, and diagnosing abnormalities in electric vehicle batteries.
"Testbed Seoul is a stepping stone for innovative technologies to touch the field and move toward the market," said Joo Yong-tae, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's economic policy office. "We will actively support Seoul to have global competitiveness in future industries such as AI and robots."


Mirat Beauty website: https://mirart.co.kr/home/
Source: Daily Pop