The organization’s theme for this year is ‘All Things Connected’. And as OCF brings together many of the industry’s major players, including Samsung, it showcases how devices from different manufacturers can work well together on a connected platform. The exhibition is being held in Las Vegas Sand Hall from 5^th January to 8^th January 2017.

Although a rapidly growing industry, IoT currently suffers from fragmentation. A wide range of standards stymie cross-sector collaboration, which in turn hinders the industry from establishing a unified legacy.

In theory, the billions of connected phones, computers, sensors, and other devices should be able to communicate with each other regardless of manufacturer, operating system and chipset. OCF was created to make that vision a reality. The organization is creating a specification and sponsoring an open source project called IoTivity to make IoT an all-compassing ‘internet of everything’. OCF already has over 300 members, many of which include household names such as Samsung Electronics. Cooperation on this scale will unlock a huge opportunity in the IoT market, and will help developers and companies create solutions that map to a single open specification and codes.

Putting the Platform into Action

At CES 2017, OCF’s exhibition demonstrates working examples of how a unified IoT platform can provide benefits to users as well as developers and manufacturers. Here, Samsung displays its own products as part of the OCF Kiosk Zone and Demo Zone. Samsung has its own kiosk and is showing products including its robot vacuum cleaner and Gear S3. Meanwhile, in the Demo Zone, Samsung products are being featured alongside other OCF member products in connected platform use cases.

Some might say that a robot vacuum cleaner is in itself a ground-breaking innovation, and indeed it is. But what if it could be controlled remotely from a smartwatch? At the Samsung Kiosk in the OCF exhibition booth, how Samsung Gear S3 can be used to turn the autonomous vacuum cleaner on or off and to change modes on the device is demonstrated. The vacuum is also able to send notifications to the smartwatch to communicate any issues it detects, such as its wheels being stuck.

Grand Vision

A mock living room is set up in the OCF Demo Zone. At the living room, three different scenarios are demonstrated in which various devices can work in tandem as part of a smart home. The first two of these are Leaving Home Mode and Coming Home Mode. Here, a Gear or Windows 10 tablet is used to turn the TV on or off, change the volume and contents on TV as customized by the user, turn the robot vacuum and air conditioning on or off, and control the lights and temperature in accordance with practical experience in smart home. In Movie Mode, the same elements can be controlled to different parameters to create the perfect viewing experience – lights are dimmed, picture and sound setting of TV changes to Movie Mode, and air conditioning becomes wind-free.

But the smart home extends beyond the living room. In the garage that is recreated in the Demo Zone, a Gear S3 changes the settings of a car parked up inside – including its temperature. Also from inside the vehicle, mode of Family Hub 2.0 can be switched to Power Cool, Power Freeze and Ice-making Mode, realizing true convergence of smart home and connected car.

The smart home is just one of the ways that OCF will help bring about a more open IoT platform that benefits all. It will also be used in industrial, enterprise, healthcare and automotive settings. But the basic premise is the same throughout. A collaborative approach to IoT makes sense for all involved. Samsung’s work with OCF and partnership at CES 2017 is an important part of showing what a connected future could look like.

The goal of the Open Connectivity Foundation is to accelerate industry innovation in IoT by showcasing how devices from different manufacturers can work together on a connected platform.

The OCF’s theme for this year is ‘All Things Connected’.

The OCF brings together many of the industry’s major players, including Samsung.

The Samsung products presented at the OCF’s CES 2017 booth illustrated how a variety of devices can work together to create a convenient and connected ‘smart’ home.

The exhibit included ‘connected’ living room and garage setups, and provided specific examples of how a unified IoT platform can benefit users as they go about their day.

Both setups illustrated how connected devices could be set to conveniently automate everyday tasks. Here, Samsung’s Gear S3 is used to seamlessly adjust a thermostat and unlock and put the top down on a user’s convertible.

The Gear S3 was also used to control key functions on Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator, allowing the user to adjust the refrigeration mode and alerting them when its door was ajar.

In the exhibit’s mock living room, a variety of electronics can be activated and powered off depending on whether the user was leaving, coming home or preparing to watch a movie.

Samsung Electronics today introduced its expanded SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart Internet of Things (IoT) platform featuring two new module families, ARTIK 0 and ARTIK 7, new device management capabilities in SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud and an expanded partner ecosystem. The result is a complete IoT development solution to help companies take their IoT projects from concept to reality in record time.

According to a recent research study by 451 Group, 65 percent of enterprises are using the Internet of Things (IoT) to optimize their services and product offerings. With the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform, many of these enterprises now can build IoT solutions to further transform their businesses and enter new markets.

Today, businesses struggle to build IoT solutions in-house. They have to grapple with the tasks of building a scalable infrastructure, adding new expertise and managing cumbersome integrations. The SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT end-to-end platform provides companies with all the upfront IoT hardware and software they need, so they can focus on developing disruptive IoT products quickly and simply.

“IoT is one of Samsung’s major strategic areas of focus and growth,” said Dr. Byungse So, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer for the Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center. “By enabling the product-development cycle to flourish, we can help usher in the next generation of IoT innovation. We’re paving the way for companies to reimagine how these new devices, apps and services can impact everyday life to address global challenges.”

Internal groups at Samsung are leveraging the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform to build fresh new IoT solutions of their own. For example, Samsung’s Consumer Electronics division has leveraged the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform to create an IoT smart air purifier. “The SAMSUNG ARTIK platform allowed us to cost-effectively build prototypes of our new solution and quickly get it to market,” said Youngsoo Do, Senior Vice President of Digital Control Group, Samsung Electronics. “With the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform, we also have the ability to connect intelligently to other smart devices, as well as to the cloud, which enables new use cases.”

An End-to-End IoT Solution

The SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform unifies hardware, software, cloud, security and partner ecosystems in a single offering so that enterprises can reduce the time, cost and risk typically associated with the delivery of complex IoT solutions. Unlike other IoT platforms, the SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform makes it easy to build IoT products and services by addressing the complexity of IoT with easy-to-use, open and enterprise-grade APIs, SDKs and tools. Key additions to the new SAMSUNG ARTIK platform include:

• ARTIK 0 family: The ARTIK 0 family of modules enables low-power, lightweight, cost-optimized devices targeted at end-devices including HVAC, lighting, industrial sensors, personal health monitoring and more. The modules are built on power-optimized ARM® Cortex®-M microcontrollers and support low-power wireless standards, such as the ZigBee®, Thread®, or Bluetooth® Smart standards. They save customers time and money by providing a complete connectivity solution, including networking stacks, radio frequency (RF) components and precertification for regulatory approval.

• ARTIK 7 family: The ARTIK 7 family of modules is intended for high-end gateways and multimedia applications. With an 8-core 64-bit Cortex A-53 processor, the modules work well as gateways and also allow customers to run local analytics, which enables offloading of cloud computing locally to boost latency and responsiveness. The ARTIK 7 module provides unrivaled connectivity, with built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Thread and GbE MAC interfaces. It has a high-end multimedia processor for video and audio processing. The pre-installed Linux® operating system (OS) speeds time to revenue by providing a powerful OS supported by an extensive developer community.  The ARTIK 7 module is RF pre-certified and features enterprise-class security.

• Device management: the new SAMSUNG ARTIK modules are designed to work out of the box with the powerful SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud, an open data-exchange platform that connects devices, applications and other clouds, enabling the Interoperability of Things. Device manufacturers can now monitor and manage their fleet of deployed devices, both edge nodes and gateways, using SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud. They can uniquely identify each device, monitor its connectivity status, manage properties, such as firmware version and battery levels, and remotely execute functions on the device, including reboot, factory reset, firmware update, and reset error code.

An Expanded Partner Ecosystem

Today’s announcement is further endorsed by the addition of leading global distributors, service providers and technology solution partners. Together these partners provide a wide range of services and capabilities to help companies seamlessly build innovative IoT solutions and get them to market faster.

“Naver is leveraging the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform and partner ecosystem to introduce a new voice-controlled smart home assistant called AMICA as an entry into the world of IoT,” said Chang Song, CTO of Naver Corporation, a leading portal in Korea that invests heavily in the development of new technologies. “AMICA, running on the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform, will enable advanced natural language processing that can usher in exciting new IoT applications and consumer products. By partnering with Samsung, we can effectively grow our opportunities in IoT across Asia. Additionally, Naver developers can soon access SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud via a single sign-on, which will further speed new product development.”

“The SAMSUNG ARTIK platform delivers modular solutions with integrated connectivity and cloud enablement,” said Aiden Mitchell, Vice President of Global IoT Solutions at Arrow Electronics.  “We are pleased to support the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform with its low-power edge, control and gateway solutions, as the integration will help speed customers in their IoT development and time to market.”

“Samsung is a key partner and we look forward to offering our customers the option to purchase SAMSUNG ARTIK modules, thereby providing them with a powerful new way to build IoT products,” said Yunshik Kim, Executive Vice President at MUJIN. “We support Samsung’s vision for an end-to-end IoT platform and we are excited to take this step together as the Korean distributor for SAMSUNG ARTIK modules.”

As a proud member of the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), a leading IoT industry standard group, Samsung is also bringing open IoT technologies to advance interoperability between connected devices and enable the full operating potential of IoT by leveraging the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform and IoTivity open-source software.

The new SAMSUNG ARTIK modules are available for order immediately and worldwide through distribution partners, Arrow, Digi-Key and Mujin.  You can find more information about the Samsung ARTIK platform and development tools at www.artik.io.

About the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC)
SSIC is a global organization within Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on innovation and new business creation, headquartered in Silicon Valley and with offices in Korea, Israel, France, and the U.K.  SSIC’s mission is to develop and accelerate disruptive technologies through open innovation, investments, and acquisitions by working in collaboration with entrepreneurs and strategic partners to enhance people’s lives and to help make the world a better place.