SKT 'Jump VR' Avatars Now Available on Smartphones

[Asia Economy Reporter Joeslgina] The ‘Virtual Social World,’ a virtual reality (VR)-based community service that is a core service of the 5G era, has been implemented on mobile.

SK Telecom announced on the 22nd that it has launched ‘Virtual Social World Mobile,’ a service where VR users form relationships with others through communities and various activities in a ‘virtual world’ that transcends time and space.

Until now, ‘Virtual Social World’ was designed to be used with HMD (Head Mount Display) devices such as Oculus Go, but now it is possible to use it on smartphones without HMDs, allowing VR device and mobile users to interact in a single virtual world.

To use ‘Virtual Social World’ Mobile, users open the ‘Jump VR’ app, set their avatar in the My Room menu, and enter a social room. Inside the social room, there are nine themed rooms such as club rooms and cafe rooms, where users can meet other avatars, make friends, and engage in various activities.

The launch of the mobile version not only expands the service base but also enhances various activities such as expressing one’s personality more naturally through avatars, making friends, playing together, and visiting places, showing the future vision of SNS.

In particular, SK Telecom introduced the ‘New Avatar’ with more natural dance moves, gestures, and facial expressions. By applying the upgraded ‘Avatar Framework,’ avatars now have more diverse facial decorations and costumes, and movements such as running and shaking objects have become more natural with richer emotional expressions.

The implementation of ‘Virtual Social World’ and ‘New Avatar’ is based on SK Telecom’s proprietary technology. These include ▲ the authoring tool for creating virtual worlds called the ‘T Real Platform,’ ▲ the ‘Avatar Framework’ for creating and controlling avatars, ▲ ‘Telepresence’ for real-time synchronization of multiple users’ activities, and ▲ ‘Immersive Rendering Technology’ for realistic virtual world implementation. SK Telecom has filed 92 domestic and international patents in related fields.

SK Telecom plans to diversify categories of items that express individuality, including avatar costumes, facial makeup, hats, earrings, and nails.

Additionally, the ‘My Room’ where users decorate their avatars will be expanded to include spaces for growing plants and tropical fish. Soon, users will be able to invite friends to their virtually decorated spaces to show off pets and visit friends’ ‘My Rooms.’ Furthermore, with the mobile version release, users can more easily share selfies of their avatars taken in ‘Virtual Social World’ on SNS.

Jeon Jin-soo, Head of SK Telecom’s 5GX Service Business Division, said, “We have overcome physical limitations to create another self in virtual space and meet various people beyond the boundaries of reality. This will establish itself as a true 5G service that allows communication as if facing others in the same space, even if they are far away.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.