A product that can see sailing and location or nearby ship in real time through Smart devices such as Smartphones, notepads and others has been released.
Marine SOFT (CEO Lee Jae-in) made an announcement on the 26th that it has developed AIS Monitoring System (AKA Smart Monitoring System) for small ship based on Smart devices.
Smart Monitoring System is comprised of PPWC (Pilot Plug to Wi-Fi Converter) that sends current AIS (Automatic Identification System) information to Smart Devices after changing it to Wi-Fi and an application that can monitor this information through a marine chart.
If PPWC is attached and application is ran through a Smart device, one can see types, locations and information on movements of nearby ship with his or her ship at the center.
Because coastal ocean and ports have huge containers and small ship come in and out frequently and has fishing boats nearby, there is a high chance of dangers.
According to Statistics Korea, number of marine accidents in last year actually increased compared to previous year when there was Sewol Ferry Accident. Number of accidents increased by 63% from 1,330 in 2014 to 2,101 in 2015. Also number of ship that was involved in accidents also increased from 1,565 to 2,362. Although number of casualties decreased from 710 to 395, it is a meaningful number if number of casualties from Sewol Ferry Accident is considered.
Smart Monitoring System is developed so that there are lesser number of accidents near ports and costal ocean.
Biggest advantage of this system is that one can see nearby situation very easily and fast whenever he or she is located. Because previous monitoring devices had to be fixed inside of a cockpit and cot a lot, it was a huge financial burden for people who owned fishing boats or small ship.
MarineSOFT decreased financial burden by developing its own marine chart that is installed in the application and increased possibility of expansion of application services that are based on this application.
It is difficult for private businesses to manufacture and sell South Korea’s marine chart for littoral sea. After seeing this niche, foreign businesses had made marine charts for littoral sea and are selling them for $25.
MarineSOFT finished manufacturing a prototype and is currently testing it at Ulan Harbour Pilots and through couple shipping companies. After testing this prototype by end of this year, it is planning to commercialize it officially in next year.