Sungyong Kim, CEO of S.O.X (Incubation company at Kwangwoon Startup Support Center)
LTEX can accurately determine locations using only everyday wireless signals
It is characterized by its ability to complement the weaknesses of GPS in wide-area location technologies
Its flagship item, LTEX, is a service that provides location information through a hybrid positioning AI model trained on everyday wireless signals—such as Wi-Fi, BLE, and LTE—collectively referred to as Living RF. It is mainly used in emergency response and public safety sectors.
“The conventional GPS method had a success rate of only about half, and the base station method had large errors, resulting in a significant gap from the quality expected in the field. In this situation, our LTEX can provide location information with GPS-level accuracy and a success rate of over 95%. Especially in emergencies, it’s impossible to keep requesting information from the person in need of rescue, and in such cases, we take pride in LTEX being a highly effective solution.”
CEO Kim said, “Another important point is that our technology can complement the weaknesses of GPS in wide-area positioning,” adding, “It can determine locations even in GPS shadow zones such as indoor spaces or mountainous areas where it does not function properly, making it a meaningful alternative to existing technologies.”
The strength of LTEX lies in the fact that it requires no additional infrastructure or special equipment. It is a wide-area service that delivers highly accurate location information both indoors and outdoors using only everyday smartphones. While most wide-area location services currently rely heavily on GPS technology, the key differentiator of S.O.X’s LTEX lies in its ability to provide high-quality location information without depending on GPS.
“Of course, there are already methods on the market that use wireless signals as supplementary means to compensate for GPS shadow zones. However, GPS-centered technologies have critical weaknesses. In particular, they are highly vulnerable to attacks that inject false data, such as jamming and spoofing. If subjected to such attacks, location information can become severely distorted or the system may be unable to determine a location at all.”
S.O.X’s LTEX can accurately determine locations using only everyday wireless signals. In addition, since it is powered by artificial intelligence, it can produce consistent results even when requests contain incorrect data or spoofed signals.
The CEO said, “We call this ‘ruggedization processing,’ and we believe this robustness is one of the core technological elements required in emergencies,” adding, “Ultimately, what we aim for is to provide reliable location services in any environment and under any circumstances.”
S.O.X is currently developing sales channels with a primary focus on public emergency response agencies such as the Fire Department and the National Police Agency. As for tangible results, the Fire Department is currently conducting pilot services in Daejeon and Sejong.
It is also participating in the National Police Agency’s Police Lab project, and once it is completed, its technology is expected to be fully adopted by the police sector. In particular, the company is fine-tuning the application of its technology to personal protection devices.
While public services primarily focus on responding to incidents and accidents after they occur, the private sector has recently shown growing interest in preventing such events in advance. In line with this trend, S.O.X has also developed private services, such as personal safety apps and child protection apps. The company plans to showcase these for the first time at this year’s Korea Electronics Show, marking the first case of LTEX technology being offered in the private sector.
“To expand into overseas markets, we have signed a marketing MOU with a local company in Japan and are currently planning specific marketing action steps.”
Regarding future plans, Kim said, “For our main business, we aim to begin by implementing our positioning platform in national emergency response agencies and later expand its application to smart city platforms operated by local governments.” He added, “Another exciting plan is to collaborate with startups that wish to create applied services based on our technology,” adding, “We have already expressed our intent to the regional Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, and by the end of this year or early next year, the first startup is expected to be officially launched.”
Date of Establishment: September 2018
Main Business: LTEX (wide-area hybrid positioning AI service), development of personal safety and family protection app services
Achievements: 2025.04 Selected for the R&D Special Zone Promotion Project, 2025.03 Selected as a Glocal Company by the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, 2024.12 Certified as a Research Institute Company by the Ministry of Science and ICT (No. 1979), 2024.12 Received Excellence Award at the 1st Startup Expo Demo Day, 2024.09 Secured investment from ETRI Holdings (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute), 2024.04 Re-certified as a Venture Company (valid until 2026), 2023.09 Participated in the National Police Agency’s Police Lab Project for field-use positioning technology, 2023.04 Conducted an ETRI project on low-power device positioning, 2022.12 Participated in the National Police Agency’s Police Lab Project for field-use positioning technology, 2022.09 Provided Drilldown play data visualization solution for the DMC Conet Big Data course, 2022.08 Supplied STAYON box indoor positioning solution to Jeju JDC Duty-Free Store, 2022.08 Selected as an incubation company at Kwangwoon University Startup Incubation Center, 2022.05 Developed multi-source–based positioning database updates and validation tools integrated with telecom operators for ETRI, 2022.04 Developed Bucheon City ITS emergency management system, 2021.11 Demonstrated precision positioning technology for emergency response (LTE/Wi-Fi hybrid) to the Minister of Science and ICT, 2021.06 Certified as a Venture Company, 2021.02 Certified as a Corporate Research Institute, 2020.12 Selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ Didimdol Project, 2020.05 Developed Smart City use case validation scenario and verification portal for LH Land & Housing Institute, 2020.04 Developed emergency precision positioning technology (LTE/Wi-Fi hybrid) with ETRI, 2020.03 Selected as an incubation company at Seoul Startup Hub, 2019.09 Awarded in the KISA Location-Based Service Contest, 2019.03 Selected as an incubation company at Seoul Campus Town SNK-VITAMIN Center
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com
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