Date: July 4, 2006
Source: KIPO
For today’s young people, the role of mobile phone goes beyond a means of communication and taking part in everyday life. Mobile phones are being used as subject matter for a TV comedy program showing the life of a libertine.
As young people are the main target of mobile phones, many patent applications are filed in relation with dating services, one of the major interests of these young people. There are already services that manage a couple’s love level by informing the location of lovers, emotional status, and love level index expressed as the number of calls. There are even services that help a person search for his/her mate more actively.
In the Korean folktale Chunhyang-jeon, Lee made his servant ask what Chunhyang thought about him after he saw her on a swing in Danho holiday. Just like this, a person looking for a mate in certain area can make his mobile phone see if an ‘ideal type’ is located in the same area. Acting as a servant, the mobile phone uses Bluetooth or other mobile communication technology to find an appropriate mate and send a short message. The mobile phone receiving a short message then acts as a maid, and reports the message to her mistress. The phone also asks her if she is going to send a message of acceptance. By pressing the ‘Okay,’ or ‘Cancel’ button, the phone can finally tell the intention of her mistress to the sender’s phone, and the result of the negotiation is finally reported to the original sender. Of course, the high standards of the master might not allow the servant phone to find an appropriate mate, or the master’s proposal might just get denied by everyone.
This service is expected to gather the interest of the young generation who are more familiar with cyber meetings through chatting or short messages than meetings in the actual world. Compared to the older generation, this new generation has less opportunity to actually approach a potential mate whom they like, and this service will support them to know the intention of others through short messages, without the shame of being rejected. Mobile phones with this technology will become a sincere servant/maid, informing and asking the intentions of their masters/mistresses.