198. screen
It was a few hours later when Hoyeong and Miru arrived at Ontario Elementary School.
He deliberately waited for the school class to end.
“Where can I go?”
“We have decided to meet in Room A of Teacher Building.”
“okay. Teacher Dongi… There you are.”
Hoyoung could easily find the one-story building that served as the Korean school’s office.
Although this school was an elementary school, it was a campus format.
It seemed to feel the scale of North America again.
Hoyoung immediately knocked on the door of Room A and opened it gently.
smart tock-
“Excuse me.”
“yes. I was waiting.”
When Hoyoung went inside Room A and saw Professor Donovan, he was surprised inside.
‘So young?’
It was 1982 when Professor Donovan started research on capacitive multi-touch.
Even if he started research as soon as he became a professor in 1982, it was 13 years ago.
However, his appearance did not look like he was in his early 40s.
Hoyoung did not express himself at all and greeted him.
“Nice to meet you. This is Hoyoung Yun from H&H.”
“nice to meet you. This is Donovan. I had no idea that a rising star in the IT industry would ask to meet me.”
“To say he is a rising morning star is an overstatement. Professor Donovan.”
“haha. I am no longer a professor. Now I am simply a teacher.”
Donovan said with a smile.
That expression looked sincere.
Even though he said that he was no longer a professor, he showed no sign of regret or remorse.
“Why did you ask to see me? This is the first time anyone has visited me since I came down here in Quebec and started teaching children.”
“Dear Professor…”
“Call me Mr. Donovan.”
“All right. Mr. Donovan. I am very interested in your patented technology.”
“The skills I have, what skills are you talking about?”
Donovan’s expression was incomprehensible.
At this point, Hoyoung, who asked the opposite question, was even more absurd.
“Don’t you have multi-touch technology on a capacitive touch screen?”
“ah···! You mean that skill.”
No matter how you look at it, Donovan’s reaction was strange.
From Hoyoung’s point of view, multi-touch technology was so important that it marked a milestone in the history of world IT.
But now Donovan was talking like it really didn’t matter.
“yes. That’s right. I want to buy a patent for that technology.”
“A patent? haha. Buy whatever you like. But we’ll have to talk to the University of Toronto as well. I only own 50% of the patents.”
“Thank you for speaking up. Then, let me buy the 50% that Mr. Donovan has. By the way, could you arrange a place with the University of Toronto? I have no ties to them.”
Hearing Hoyoung’s words, Donovan’s forehead furrowed slightly.
“Unfortunately, that seems difficult. It’s been a while since I cut ties with them.”
Donovan’s face hardened.
As if something bad happened.
Hoyoung did not miss the change in his expression.
“Did something happen with the University of Toronto by any chance?”
“What’s going on? haha. What···. It’s common. What···. It is too long to talk.”
A euphemism for not wanting to talk about what happened.
But Hoyoung did not give up.
“If it’s too long, you can speak slowly. I’m free. It’s already dinner time. Shall we have dinner together and have a leisurely conversation?”
“Well···.”
“Don’t do that, let’s do it together.”
“All right. But I have about an hour left before work.”
Hoyoung nodded happily.
“About an hour. I’ll wait.”
“yes. Then see you later.”
.
Donovan came out of school an hour later like a knife, and Ho-young, who was waiting for him at a cafe overlooking the school gate, went with him to a nearby restaurant.
At a restaurant serving French food, Donovan said cheerfully, as if his guard against Hoyoung had eased a little.
“Quebec is what we call Little France. It is a place where French is used as an official language, despite being in Canada.”
“That’s why the building style is so unique.”
“yes. Thanks to that, you can taste such good French food in Canada. Especially, this is my favorite place in Quebec.”
“okay. Are you looking forward to it?”
After a while, the food came out, and Hoyoung was really impressed with the food, which was better than expected.
Contrary to Hoyoung’s usual thought that there was nothing delicious in North America besides steak and hamburgers, the food at this restaurant was really good.
Of course, it was French food.
“Oh, that’s really good.”
“Yes? That’s why I came to this distant Quebec to live.”
Donovan ate as if he was really happy.
In the middle of the meal, Hoyoung took a break and said quietly.
“You have succeeded in developing great technology, so why are you doing this?”
“A great skill? haha. You mean the capacitive multi-touch technology I was talking about earlier?”
“That’s right.”
Hoyoung nodded.
After staring at Hoyoung for a moment, Donovan shook his head and said,
“Did I ask what happened to the University of Toronto?”
“yes.”
“Was it 1987? Electrostatic multi-technology, which has been said to be a great technology from a while ago. This is the year I perfected that skill.”
“That’s right. After completing it, it suddenly disappeared.”
“haha···. It’s not that I disappeared because I wanted to disappear.”
“sure?”
Hoyoung thought that there was a story behind it.
“The University of Toronto concluded that the multi-touch developed by our lab is completely useless in real life.”
“No way?!”
Hoyeong asked in a loud voice without realizing it.
“At that time, touchscreen technology itself was not a mainstream technology. Besides, I wasn’t even interested in multi-touch. I even asked myself what the hell I was going to do after developing this technology.”
“However, when I looked at the professor’s thesis, I confirmed that he appropriately gave examples that could be applied to various real-life situations.”
Donovan said with a chuckle.
“Because where a touch screen is needed, the pressure-sensitive type is standard. The only thing that came back was that it was a half-baked technology, saying that the electrostatic type would not respond when wearing gloves.”
Hoyoung clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘The University of Toronto is also a very good school, but you can’t see the future at all and have such a short-sighted view. What a disappointment.’
Even after 10 years, capacitive touch will become the dominant touch method in the market.
A few years later, in 1999, Donovan and the University of Toronto made the decision to keep the patent, but release the license freely to everyone, because the annual cost of 500 dollars to maintain the patent was a waste.
At first, Ho-young also tried to wait, but he came all the way here because he wanted to purchase the patent right because it seemed that the development of the mobile phone he thought would be faster than he thought.
“So you came out of the University of Toronto.”
“yes. After seeing the 1988 budget, I was able to make up my mind to leave the University of Toronto completely. Because they only allocated $1,000 for research.”
“that···. That’s a bit harsh.”
“I think so too. So I had no choice but to come out.”
A mere $1,000 in research funding meant that I should stop researching.
Donovan, as a researcher and as a professor, could not bear such humiliation and eventually left the school.
“I’ve never told anyone about me until now, but it’s the first time I’ve met and I’ve told everyone. ha ha ha. You said you wanted to buy a patent, right? I don’t know why people want to buy such a despised technology, but feel free to buy it. The payment for 50% of what I have will be paid for today’s meal.”
Donovan shrugged and said calmly.
However, Hoyoung could not easily answer his words.
Just look carefully into Donovan’s eyes as he speaks.
“Why is that? Did you get anything on my face?”
“yes. There is something very large buried there.”
“okay?”
Donovan fumbled with his face, but there was nothing smeared on it.
Hoyeong smiled and said, “I wonder if Donovan was funny.”
“The face of the professor… There is so much lingering regret.”
“Are you regretful?”
“yes.”
This time, Donovan had no answer.
He was staring blankly at Hoyeong with trembling pupils.
“Can I offer you a suggestion?”
“A suggestion?”
“yes. If you can solve the patent right with the University of Toronto well and secure all 100%, would you like to come to Korea?”
“Is it Korea?”
Donovan tilted his head.
He had heard of the country called Korea, but he did not know where he was attached.
“When you come to Korea, I will guarantee that you can do whatever research you want to do.”
“ha ha ha···.”
Donovan laughed for a moment and said.
“Sorry, no matter how much I like research… Even if it is true that I have not yet abandoned my attachment to technology, I am satisfied with my current life. Teaching science to school students is very rewarding.”
Hoyoung smiled and said.
“Let’s do something more rewarding. If you come to Korea and make a rap, we basically invest 5 million dollars a year.”
“yes?!”
Donovan jumped up from his seat.
“You mean $55 million?!”
“yes. In fact, the wired internet research team I support uses $8 million a year. And the joint venture between Qualcomm and my company, Hermes Telecom, to develop 3G communication technology costs more than 10 million dollars a year.”
Donovan could tell that Hoyeong was serious.
He didn’t even know what 3G was, but he was nodding his head.
If someone else had said it, you might have thought it would be a lie or a bluff, but it didn’t even occur to you that what Hoyeong said was a lie.
“And this money is just an initial cost, and additional investments will be made at any time if reasonable results are produced.”
“Until additional investment?”
“sure.”
Donovan thought hard for a moment.
No matter how much he lived like a hermit in an elementary school in Quebec, he was also a researcher and scientist.
He is a person who knows better than anyone else the realization in research and the fun of learning.
“Should I decide right now?”
“It is not. It’s not that terribly urgent. However, the sooner the better.”
“okay···. Then let me ask you one thing.”
“As much as you like.”
Donovan paused for a moment before speaking.
“Are there any good French restaurants in Korea?”
.
Donovan accepted Hoyoung’s proposal on the spot without looking further.
He thought that if he could satisfy his research desire, he could go anywhere, whether it be Korea or Africa.
‘All you have to do is leave the production of the capacitive screen to Professor Donovan.’
Hoyoung pondered over the current process.
The body of the mobile phone is made by Pantech, and the RAM is made by Myongsung Electronics.
3G communication is being handled by Qualcomm and Dr. Ungwon Lee’s team.
And the touch screen is even a research team led by Professor Donovan.
‘Then, the most important thing among the remaining things is… It’s a CPU.’
As for the CPU, he didn’t have to think long.
The most widely used smartphone CPU in the future is ‘Snapdragon’.
And Snapdragon is a company created by Qualcomm, which is already a major shareholder of Hoyoung.
‘If the two companies, Qualcomm and AMD, work together to make products from now on, the birth of Snapdragon could be brought forward by several years.’
Without delay, Hoyoung looked for a flight time to San Francisco, where AMD and Qualcomm are headquartered.
