InJong Rhee, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Software and Services

Technology is supposed to make life easier, but as the capabilities of machines such as smartphones, PCs, home appliances and IoT devices become more diverse, the interfaces on these devices are becoming too complicated for users to take advantage of many of these functions conveniently. User interface designers have to make tradeoff decisions to cram many functions into a small screen or bury them deeper in layers of menu trees. Ultimately users are at the mercy of the designers with an increasingly steep curve that makes learning a new device difficult. This is the fundamental limitation of the current human-to-machine interface.  Since Samsung makes millions of devices, this problem impacts the core of our business.

Samsung has a conceptually new philosophy to the problem:  instead of humans learning how the machine interacts with the world (a reflection of the abilities of designers), it is the machine that needs to learn and adapt to us.  The interface must be natural and intuitive enough to flatten the learning curve regardless of the number of functions being added. With this new approach, Samsung has employed artificial intelligence, reinforcing deep learning concepts to the core of our user interface designs. Bixby is the ongoing result of this effort.

Bixby will be a new intelligent interface on our devices. Fundamentally different from other voice agents or assistants in the market, Bixby offers a deeper experience thanks to proficiency in these three properties:

1. Completeness

When an application becomes Bixby-enabled, Bixby will be able to support almost every  task that the application is capable of performing using the conventional interface (ie. touch commands).  Most existing agents currently support only a few selected tasks for an application and therefore confuse users about what works or what doesn’t work by voice command. The completeness property of Bixby will simplify user education on the capability of the agent, making the behaviors of the agent much more predictable.

2. Context Awareness

When using a Bixby-enabled application, users will be able to call upon Bixby at any time and it will understand the current context and state of the application and will allow users to carry out the current work-in-progress continuously.  Bixby will allow users to weave various modes of interactions including touch or voice at any context of the application, whichever they feel is most comfortable and intuitive.  Most existing agents completely dictate the interaction modality and, when switching among the modes, may either start the entire task over again, losing all the work in progress, or simply not understand the user’s intention.

3. Cognitive Tolerance

When the number of supported voice commands gets larger, most users are cognitively challenged to remember the exact form of the voice commands. Most agents require users to state the exact commands in a set of fixed forms. Bixby will be smart enough to understand commands with incomplete information and execute the commanded task to the best of its knowledge, and then will prompt users to provide more information and take the execution of the task in piecemeal. This makes the interface much more natural and easier to use.

We know that adopting new ways to interact with your devices will require a change in user behavior. The inconvenience of learning a new interface can cause friction and force users to revert back to old habits (e.g. the touch interface). At the same time we believe the key to success for a new voice interface is to design a scheme that reduces friction and makes the experience significantly more rewarding than the existing interface. So at its core, Bixby will help remove friction. It will simplify user education with new voice interfaces and will make using your phone even more seamless and intuitive.

Another example of removing friction will be the dedicated Bixby button that will be located on the side of our next device. Confusion around activating a voice interface is a barrier we have removed to make it feel easier and more comfortable to give commands. For example, instead of taking multiple steps to make a call – turning on and unlocking the phone, looking for the phone application, clicking on the contact bar to search for the person that you’re trying to call and pressing the phone icon to start dialing – you will be able to do all these steps with one push of the Bixby button and a simple command.

There has been a lot of excitement and speculation about what we will deliver with the launch of the Galaxy S8 later this month, especially due to the advancements in artificial intelligence. We do have a bold vision of revolutionizing the human-to-machine interface, but that vision won’t be realized overnight. Ambition takes time.

Bixby will be our first step on a journey to completely open up new ways of interacting with your phone. At the launch of the Galaxy S8, a subset of preinstalled applications will be Bixby-enabled. This set will continue to expand over time. Our plan is to eventually release a tool (in SDK) to enable third-party developers to make their applications and services Bixby-enabled easily.

Starting with our smartphones, Bixby will be gradually applied to all our appliances.  In the future you would be able to control your air conditioner or TV through Bixby. Since Bixby will be implemented in the cloud, as long as a device has an internet connection and simple circuitry to receive voice inputs, it will be able to connect with Bixby. As the Bixby ecosystem grows, we believe Bixby will evolve from a smartphone interface to an interface for your life.

Bixby is at the heart of our software and services evolution as a company.  We are fundamentally and conceptually changing our attitude toward software and services and working hard on innovation throughout all aspects of our mobile ecosystem. Our investment in engineering resources speaks for itself – we have thousands of software developers supporting this effort. This is something that I’m very excited about. Innovating in software and services enables opportunities for creativity and the ability to build new experiences from the ground up.  With the continued investment from Samsung on artificial intelligence, the possibility of what Bixby can become is endless.

Injong Rhee, EVP & Head of R&D, Software and Services of Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Communications Business, emphasized Samsung Mobile’s strategy to become a provider of meaningful software and services to make the company’s hardware more valuable to consumers during the opening keynote speech of the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2016.

In his speech, Rhee also called for greater collaboration between developers and partners from various industries as the world becomes increasingly connected, and gave attendees a glimpse into the rich possibilities offered by the company’s ecosystem.

Samsung Knox

Samsung Knox is a software platform and an ecosystem for security, which Samsung created by building on its unique device technology. It is the foundation of most of the company’s services including Samsung Pay, Samsung Health and Samsung Connect Auto, which need strong security and data privacy.

Its commitment to interoperability will now be extended beyond Android to include Tizen—an operating system that is expected to play a central role in numerous Internet of Things devices in the near future. Only Samsung, using Tizen and Knox, can offer this combination of an open ecosystem with strong, hardware-based security and global connectivity.

Samsung Pay

In addition to ensuring simplicity and security, Samsung wanted to enable Samsung Pay to be used virtually anywhere. To do this, magnetic secure transmission (MST) was built into the back of the phone, allowing the device to function in the same way that traditional credit cards do.

This is a perfect example of Samsung’s software strategy—where a unique hardware feature is leveraged to enable a new service, one that provides a compelling user experience and delivers real value to consumers.

Samsung is adding to this value through continuous global expansion, as well as by including additional features such as support for membership cards, gift and private label cards, transit cards and online payments.

Samsung Connect Auto

Samsung is seizing opportunities for new applications and services that take advantage of an always-on connection in the car, the biggest platform in the world after mobile.

Working with leading mobile operators, automakers, insurance companies and rental car agencies, Samsung is creating a set of products and services that make driving safer, as well as more eco-friendly, productive and fun. Included among these is Connect Auto, a simple device that plugs into the car’s dashboard.

Samsung is also building an API and SDK on their open platform so developers will be able to build their own applications, and is planning to start a limited beta program this quarter and a public beta program next quarter.

Samsung Health

When Samsung launched S Health in 2012, the company aimed to empower people to live healthier lives by focusing on the pillars of healthy living—diet, activity and sleep. Today, the app is used by 150 million users in more than 130 countries.

Going forward, Samsung is prioritizing three key areas in its health services: empowerment, connectivity and security. The company is also building new services with partners across the healthcare system to solve key industry pain points.

For example, Samsung is working with HealthTap to bring medical expertise to users anytime, anywhere, and is developing remote monitoring technologies with hospitals and partners like Vivify to improve care while reducing costs. Moreover, Samsung is developing chronic disease management solutions that use its phone and wearable data to generate actionable insights and a comprehensive view of the user.

Soundcamp

Soundcamp is Samsung’s music creation app that enables users to record and perform their own songs with no sound lag.

It is not just for musicians. Audio app developers can also use it by integrating it into their own music applications. With Samsung’s Professional Audio SDK, third-party apps can utilize low-latency audio and inter-application audio routing.

Additionally, Samsung is working side by side Google’s Android audio team to make Samsung’s SDK compatible with many other Android devices.

Samsung Gaming

Mobile has become the platform for playing games and the Galaxy S7 was designed with a slew of features to improve the gaming experience for both gamers and developers. It is the first smartphone on the market to support Vulkan and boasts Game Tools and Game Launcher—tools that make gaming more fun and convenient.

Along the same vein, Samsung announced the Galaxy Game Dev Program, which will give developers a direct channel to the company and its partners’ support to allow them to make the best games possible on Samsung devices.

Samsung VR

Samsung believes that 2016 is shaping up to be the year of VR and is working to enable users to create, watch and discover VR content more easily with the Gear 360 camera, the Gear VR headset and the Samsung Milk VR service.

With the introduction of the Gear 360 camera, Samsung also enhanced the way to view Milk VR content by releasing the Milk VR app for the Gear VR. This new companion Android app allows you to enjoy content from Milk VR on your smartphone without GearVR. They also created the samsungmilkvr.com website.

New features have been added to Milk VR to better support developers. The Milk VR upload SDK, for example, allows makers of 360 cameras and 360 video editing tools to directly upload to Milk VR, regardless of the manufacturers. Also, with new tools on samsungmilkvr.com, developers can add interactive hotspots, hyperlinks between two 360 videos, to VR videos.

Samsung is also providing features that let users stream content from hard drives or media servers on local networks. The company plans to release a live streaming SDK in the coming months to allow for the creation of live streaming end points, real time transcoding and distribution to Gear VR users.

SDC 2016 will feature presentations from tech leaders and will offer a number of sessions in which developers can exchange ideas, partake in new experiences and explore potential innovations. Through the conference, Samsung aims to transform the future by combining its hardware, software and services with developers’ ideas.

“Samsung KNOX is unmatched in its ability to deliver trusted mobile security across an all-encompassing robust platform,” said Dr. Injong Rhee, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Software and Services, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “Our market leadership, innovative technology and worldwide government certification is second to none, and we look forward to giving more people the opportunity to operate mobility with complete safety.”

By securing the critical ISCCC certification, Samsung will have a stronger foothold to garner mobile device contracts with China’s regulated industries – including government authorities, ministries and finance. The mobile devices used for testing were the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5. Now, government officials and public sector workers will be able to enjoy the built-in protection provided by these Galaxy devices, from the moment the device is turned on.

ANSSI is France’s national service in charge of information security. The testing was done with Samsung KNOX Workspace 2.3, and this first evaluation is focused on the dynamic partitioning provided by KNOX Workspace. Samsung is working closely with ANSSI to allow companies to be provided integrated solution meeting stringent security standards with Samsung’s secure device. Receiving the first level security certification (CSPN) differentiates Samsung’s mobile devices within France.

As a global leader driving enterprise mobility, Samsung offers enterprise and regulated customers the flexibility of Android, the security of KNOX and partnerships that cannot be matched by any other mobile device provider. Samsung has received several mobile security certifications, including the U.S. Department of Defense, UK Communications and Electronics Security Group and other governments such as Finland and Russia.

For more information, visit: www.samsungknox.com/en/security-certifications.

There has been a lot of enthusiasm for Samsung’s mobile wallet and the ways in which it differs from other mobile payment systems. Samsung Pay launched in Korea last month, and the mobile payment solution has already proven its biggest advantage is its nearly universal merchant acceptance with both of NFC and MST(Magnetic Secure Transmission) support in nearly all current merchant locations.

Samsung Tomorrow sat down with Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President, Injong Rhee, who is in charge of leading the development of Samsung Pay, to discuss the overall consumer feedback and plans to expand the service in the future.

Q. What has been the feedback on Samsung Pay since its official debut in Korea on August 20?

Considering that only about two weeks have passed since the official launch, the response has been beyond our expectations. We’re seeing an average rate of 25,000 registrations per day for Samsung Pay, and its usage has surged rapidly, recording a daily average of KRW 750 million in terms of transaction volume. After using Samsung Pay, consumers are surprised and pleased by its intuitiveness and quick payment process. In addition, business owners have also been amazed and shown interest in the service.

We have also heard some funny stories since some vendors are unfamiliar with Samsung Pay. For example, when one of the Samsung Pay developers tried to use it at a sauna, an employee told him that they don’t accept it. Just then, another employee standing nearby said, “This is Samsung Pay. We can take it.” The developer was able to complete the transaction. I think it is hard to forget Samsung Pay once people have encountered it because of its ease-of-use and simplicity.

Q. How often do users make payments with Samsung Pay?

The details on Samsung Pay usage are constantly being updated, and a majority of Galaxy Note5 owners in Korea have used the service.

During the open beta period, about five out of every 10 were Samsung Pay transactions. This is an amazing figure since people rarely used mobile payments until now.

During the open beta service here in Korea, the number of active users who made more than one payment with Samsung Pay represent 80-90% of all Samsung Pay users. Seeing that Samsung Pay does not support online transactions yet, it can be interpreted that more than 50% of plastic card payments can be substituted with mobile payment.

Q.What do you think are the reasons behind such enthusiastic initial feedback on Samsung Pay?

We consider plastic cards to be the strongest competitor for Samsung Pay, rather than the other mobile payment services. In order to encourage consumers to use Samsung Pay instead of paying with plastic cards, we had to provide more value than a plastic card could offer.

The strongest point of Samsung Pay is that it will be able to allow users to make payments with credit cards, rewards cards, gift cards, department store cards and store-brand cards with a single mobile device, rather than a stuffed wallet, thanks to MST technology. In addition, many people think it is a hassle to get their wallets from their purses or pockets in order to pull out plastic cards, all while also holding onto their smartphones. Since it is quite convenient to pay with the smartphones they are already holding using Samsung Pay, we expect it to have a greater impact in the lifestyles of consumers.

Samsung Pay will be able to offer other various services, as well. In the future, we will be able to adopt a location-based service, notifying consumers of available coupons nearby, helping users save money and also allowing vendors to effectively execute marketing. It is expected that with these types of value-added services, the transition from using plastic cards to mobile payment services will occur rapidly, changing payment habits, as well as lifestyles.

Q. What is the feedback from banks and merchants regarding Samsung Pay?

In the banking sector, establishing and preoccupying the mobile banking system is the most important issue. Banks are interested in and actively participating in Samsung Pay as a mobile payment service that supports such systems. We were able to build a solid service system for consumers in a very short time, thanks to the eager support for technological integration by the banks. The number of partners adopting Samsung Pay is continuously rising.

Vendors are also showing positive response to Samsung Pay, enabling consumers to use rewards cards more easily, and as a tool for managing clients and advertising. Previously, consumers had to disclose a lot of personal information when signing up for rewards cards, which took extra time and created some security concerns. With Samsung Pay, when consumers wish to apply for membership, we have the data entered automatically.

That said, there are some outdated payment terminals which will require software updates in order to operate the Samsung Pay system. In order to address this issue, we are currently working with those terminal providers and sellers.

Q. Will it be possible for Samsung Pay to be available in other countries in the future? Also, will the range of devices that support Samsung Pay be expanded?

Samsung Pay’s beta tests are being conducted in the U.S., and is scheduled to launch on September 28. We will also conduct beta tests in a few other countries, including Spain and the U.K. It has been demonstrated that countries with a high credit card usage show the strongest interest in Samsung Pay.

Samsung Pay is a service based on Samsung Electronics mobile devices and is part of our efforts to provide more convenient experiences to Samsung’s mobile users. It is a great benefit for consumers, which is expected to contribute to strengthening Samsung’s market share in mobile devices. By providing Samsung Pay and closely connecting it to everyday lives, it has added yet another value that Samsung can offer consumers.

Samsung Pay is currently preloaded on four strategic products: the Galaxy S6, the Galaxy S6 edge, the Galaxy Note5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+, and we will extend it to support more devices, as well as wearable devices in the future.

Q. Currently Samsung Pay does not charge fees. Do you have plans to make profit through the service model?

Samsung Pay is provided to users, banks and credit card companies without charge so there is no profit generated from the service itself, as of now. We are focusing on how to let users fully adopt Samsung Pay easily and conveniently and what kind of additional value we can provide. We can certainly offer more value-added services in the future if they are proven to provide greater value to users.

Q. Samsung Pay users must be particularly interested in mobile device security. What kind of security system does the Samsung Pay apply in order to protect user data?

For the past several years, Samsung has concentrated on developing services, content apps and software. These efforts have laid the foundation for Samsung Pay. In particular, we have strengthened security through Samsung KNOX, a mobile security platform. Samsung Pay was created based on this improved security.

Furthermore, we have fully devoted ourselves to protecting user data within Samsung Pay. Since a one-time virtual card number (token) is generated to make each payment, the actual card number is not stored in the device. Also, if a smartphone is lost, the data in the device can be deleted remotely or the Samsung Pay function can be suspended.

Q. What additional services are you planning to offer through Samsung Pay?

First, we are planning to provide an online payment solution through Samsung Pay. It will be a convenient way to shop online since the public key certificate or password required for previous online transactions will be replaced with fingerprints. We are preparing for a transportation card function, as well.

In addition, we are considering a service that issues a Samsung Pay card number without the physical card itself. We believe it will provide greater value to consumers and vendors by reducing the expense of issuing cards and save in the production of plastic cards.

[Injong Rhee, Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President]