Samsung Showcasing Entrepreneurial Products From Talented Employees
Samsung will be displaying four innovative Creative Lab (C-Lab) offerings this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The focus will be on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) which are two of the topical technological trends. The products will be exhibited at the 4 Years From Now (4YFN) platform for startup business. They include a smart aid for people with defective vision, monitorless PC viewing glasses, a 360-degree travel experience platform, and a VR home furnishing solution.
The visual aid application is called Relúmĭno and enables visually impaired people to read books and watch TV. It is a mobile app which can be inserted into the Samsung Gear VR and helps to enhance visuals and text and can also remap blind spots by displacing images. It can also use the Amsler grid to rectify distorted images that result from metamorphopsia. The Amsler grid is a tool eye doctors use to detect vision problems occurring from a damaged macula (the central part of the retina) or the optic nerve. Relúmĭno helps people to watch TV at a significantly cheaper cost than would otherwise be the case if they had to buy expensive visual aids available in the market.
The Monitorless PC viewing glasses application is a remotely-controlled virtual reality and augmented reality solution, allowing consumers to use their smartphones and PCs without a monitor. These glasses resemble sunglasses and can be used to view content via the electro chromic glass they possess. User can now play high-capacity PC games on their mobile devices and have the option of switching between virtual reality or augmented reality modes. The virtual reality mode allows the user to engage with the environment viewed through the glasses as realistically as possible. The augmented reality by contrast superimposes the game or app on the environment
The third product known as VuildUs, is a home interior and furnishing tool which allows users to visualize what a new piece of furniture would look like in a room and whether it would fit before they buy it. It uses a 360-degree depth camera and a mobile app for VR compatible devices. The devices connect together and the home is scanned by the camera. The data collected is used to build a VR replica of the user’s home which the user can then enter after wearing the VR headset. Furniture items can be viewed in 3D format and seen exactly how they would look like in a particular location in the room. If they are liked they can be bought immediately. There is no need to measure space in the conventional way prior to purchasing the furniture because viewers will be able to see whether it fits or not in real time.
The fourth product, known as TraVRer, is a 360-degree video application that gives users the opportunity to experience virtual travel before and after a real-life trip without ever having to leave their home. It is similar to Google Street View and Matterport and enables users to visit landmarks and locations around the world complete with the realism evoked by mood, noises, and events in those places. Users have the option of switching seamlessly between different videos to go in different directions or see a place at a particular time of day without having to navigate menus for alternative video options.
C-Lab was created in Dec 2012 and is a program that encourages Samsung employees to share their innovative ideas from all of the company’s business sectors. Lee Jae II, VP of Samsung Electronics Creativity & Innovation Center stated recently that the company had talented entrepreneurial people who were not afraid to break new ground. He went on to say that the company were looking to explore novel applications for VR and 360-degree video because of the limitless potential in this area.
