Piano simulator app for smartphone and tablet PC users launched in North Korea
Kim Il Sung University also released e-book app enabling users to read books published in 2017
A piano simulator application for tablet PC and smartphone users has been launched in North Korea, the Pyongyang-linked Arirang-Meari website reported on Sunday.
The app – which is called “Training Program for Piano Performance” – allows children and novices to play a virtual piano using sheet music and is one of several mobile applications released in the DPRK in recent weeks.
“Children and beginners who want to learn piano without the assistance of teachers can improve their performance abilities and look through sheet music at any time and place,” Arirang-Meari reported. “This program has been gaining popularity currently among all people who want to learn piano.”
Arirang-Meari did not provide details about the production company that designed the app.
The virtual music instrument app was sparsely reported on by North Korean media and websites despite the release of numerous other mobile applications this year, including an updated quiz app and farming app, as well as mobile games.
Training Program for Piano Performance I Photo: Arirang-Meari
E-BOOKS
North Korean companies and institutes have also introduced several programs for reading e-books and accessing information online, an ongoing trend in the DPRK.
Arirang-Meari on Monday reported that the information technology research institute at Kim Il Sung University recently launched an e-book reader app for mobile phone users.
App users can browse books published in 2017 by installing the program “Literature Book 2017,” the media said, adding that the program is “a hit with young students who love literature.”
Literature Book 2017 I Photo: Arirang-Meari
The Institute of Koryo Medicine has also developed a program which can browse “Hyangyakjipsongbang,” one of the top books on Koryo medicine along with “Uibangryuchwi” and “Tonguibogam,” state media DPRK Today reported on November 26.
The “Hyangyakjipsongbang” was originally compiled in the early 15th century through reference to around 260 publications on Koryo medicine. The aim of the publication was to enable people to “easily treat disease” using ingredients which are abundant in Korea.
North Korean researchers used image data from the original document to develop the program, which allows readers to see both the “original text and the translation” of the “Hyangyakjipsongbang.” The “Hyangyakjipsongbang” was originally written in Chinese characters.
Users can also search and browse around 13,300 types of treatment based on categories including disease symptoms, prescriptions, acupuncture and moxibustion therapies, folk remedies, and dietary therapies.
“This program can enable medical workers to look through the ‘Hyangyakjipsongbang’ conveniently and more quickly develop efficacious methods of treatment and medicines which can fit the physical constitution of our people,” the DPRK Today said.
The media outlet added that the program won first prize at the 28th National Exhibition of IT Achievements in November.
In addition, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported in July that Pyongyang Medical College of Kim Il Sung University had developed a program called “Yusan (Heritage) 1.0,” an online version of “Tonguibogam.”
“Stored in its database are at least one million Chinese characters from original texts with their Korean version in five volumes, over 3,000 Koryo medical terms, [and] data on 1,000-odd Koryo medicines,” the media said in its English edition.
Health check-up app “Vitality 1.0” I Photo: Arirang-Meari
HEALTH APP
Arirang-Meari reported on December 8 that, in addition to these online databases, a health check-up app called “Vitality 1.0” has launched in the DPRK.
The app reportedly allows users to check health conditions such as pulse rate, blood pressure and viscosity, eyesight, hearing, and lung capacity with their smartphone’s camera and microphone.
The product is similar in purpose to a mobile fitness application released earlier this year that allows users to access information about different types of muscles in the body and what exercises can enhance them.
Edited by Bryan Betts
12 Dec 2017 – 12:38 by jbcentre
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