ⓒ MARVRUS

Today, we’ll introduce an education technology firm named MARVRUS, which has opened a new horizon for education with its innovative VR and AI technology. VR and AI stand for virtual reality and artificial intelligence, respectively. Let’s hear from company CEO Lim Sera. 

MARVRUS is an edu-tech startup that was established in late 2015 with a vision of providing quality education to everyone and bridging the educational gap through technology. Our signature product is an English learning tool called SPEAKIT.

While working as an English instructor in a local region to earn money needed to set up my own firm, I discovered a wide educational divide existing between rural and urban areas. I also found that English tutoring, in particular, made up the largest portion of private education expenses. It is ideal for students to participate in English-learning programs overseas. But actually, not many students can afford to do so. It came to me that I could use latest technology, like VR and AI, to allow learners even in local regions to experience overseas training. With this idea in mind, I organized a development team.

MARVRUS is the first Korean developer of a VR-based simulation program for language learning called SPEAKIT. Lim, who was always interested in education, created a volunteer teaching club after entering Yonsei University. After graduation, she formed a non-profit group to support students in Cambodia. Operating the group for two years, she wondered how to provide good quality education to many more people in a more effective way. She decided to start her own business. 

To secure money for her business, she taught English at a private learning institute. In the process, she hoped to develop educational content that would reduce the educational gap between students of rich and poor families and between different regions. In cooperation with members of the development team at MARVRUS, she created SPEAKIT, a VR-based English learning app. 

The basic idea of SPEAKIT is that users can go abroad to learn English in a second. Based on realistic content using VR, the solution exposes the learners to real-life situations such as making a hotel reservation, visiting an immigration office, attending a school overseas or having a job interview. Using images and videos taken in real situations, it provides a learning environment, in which users can actually talk with native speakers of English. 

Some programs offer video-based instruction by connecting native English teachers remotely. But the programs only last 10 to 30 minutes a day and they cost much. In contrast, our solution provides VR simulations of different day-to-day situations. For example, the scene of going shopping in LA can be played over and over again without additional costs. 

The best way to learn a foreign language is to go to a country where the language is used and mingle with local people. However, not everyone can afford to do that, in terms of time and money. SPEAKIT remedied the problem by creating realistic content based on VR. SPEAKIT offers more than 100 episodes, including going through immigration, shopping and having a conversation at business meetings, through VR. When accessing SPEAKIT’s 360-degree VR videos, users move to foreign cities like New York, London, LA and Sydney in a second to experience real-life situations there. More than 90 percent of SPEAKIT’s videos were taken outside Korea, and people who appear in the videos are all native speakers of English. It is three times more effective and five times more immersive than existing learning programs. 

But SPEAKIT offers more than just “experience.” It uses speech recognition technology to analyze the users’ previous conversations. Based on the user data, the VR tool makes different responses and gives a more personalized feedback to learners using AI. MARVRUS’ strength lies in this emotional AI technology. 

ⓒ MARVRUS

MARVRUS has its own emotional AI technology capable of analyzing the users’ voice, pronunciation, intonation and what they talk about. It can even analyze their facial expressions and feelings like fear or nervousness. Basically, learning English is about communicating. If learners’ pronunciation is not good, for example, they can’t make themselves understood properly, even if their information is correct. This application can help the learners solve the problem.

The company’s AI measures users’ emotional data, which is a non-verbal element, and gives them a feedback in real time, so users can learn ideal facial expressions pronunciation for English conversation. Through the virtual simulation of various situations, they can also overcome the fear of speaking in English. Using VR and AI, this educational tool allows users to learn English anytime, anywhere, feeling as if they were abroad.

It is easy to imagine that this useful and innovative app is drawing keen attention from telecom operators inside and outside Korea.

SPEAKIT can be run in a Wi-Fi connected environment, of course. But this tool featuring multiple technologies proves highly effective in a 5G network environment, where users can fully immerse themselves in VR settings.

SKT became one of the world’s first companies to commercialize 5G networks in April 2019. At the time, we made an exclusive contract with the largest mobile carrier in Korea to release out product as part of its “killer content” available on 5G smartphones. Mostly, games and other entertainment services are cited as “killer content.” Our product represents a rare example of VR educational content that can replace real-life training. With more and more countries building the 5G network, telecommunications firms both from Korea and abroad are showing interest in this VR-and AI-based language learning service. I’m sure our communication enhancement solution will be used in more countries this year.

Using emerging technologies, MARVRUS created realistic education content that shines in a 5G era characterized by mixed reality, super connectivity and AI. It is attracting special attention from telecom companies in various parts of the world including China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The company has already established a foothold in China and Japan. This year, it plans to unveil its simulation program for language learning in a number of countries. But this is just the beginning.

VR is only one of the tools used for our services. We aim to use diverse technologies and the media so our solutions can be used more commonly. Our emotional engine that analyzes verbal and non-verbal data can be used for various purposes. It is effective for entertainment content, webtoons and video education service. Amid the global outbreak of COVID-19, non-face-to-face education has emerged as a hot issue. When offering relevant services, it is necessary to know, in real time, how intensively users focus on, what content they like or dislike and how effective the services are. We’ve already secured technology to analyze and measure these elements. We’re working on some projects utilizing the technology, and we’ll release new services from the second half of the year.

Non-contact services have been widely used in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, boding well for the boundless business expansion of MARVRUS. Dubbed as “Disney” in virtual education, the company shows a new direction for future education.