At Samsung Developer Conference 2024 (SDC24), Samsung announced plans to extend Knox Matrix from mobile devices and TVs to home appliances following Samsung Knox’s expansion. Knox Matrix provides integrated protection for interconnected devices, allowing them to mutually monitor for security threats and notify users of threat-blocking measures.

▲ Jong-Hee Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics, delivers the SDC24 keynote address.

In addition, Samsung plans to introduce mobile biometric authentication to its home appliances next year — eliminating the need to enter IDs and passwords and preventing login information from being exposed.

Detecting Security Threats and Notifying Users

All Samsung smart home appliances¹ are safeguarded by Samsung Knox, a holistic and multi-defense security platform that protects users’ data from external threats including malicious software. Nonetheless, Samsung set out to build a secure environment for interconnected devices since strong connectivity between devices creates an improved user experience and protection against data exposure in the age of AI home appliances.

Knox Matrix is a security solution that comprehensively protects connected devices and networks using private blockchain technology. The system consists of Trust Chain, Cross Platform and Credential Sync.

▲ Knox Matrix is comprised of three main technical elements.

Based on blockchain technology, Trust Chain allows connected devices to monitor each other for security threats and notifies users of threat-blocking measures if there is a problem with the security status. Cross Platform ensures consistent security standards are applied to connected devices, even if they run on different operating systems (OS) and platforms. Credential Sync encrypts data shared between devices and synchronizes credentials to maintain security.

First introduced to the 2024 Bespoke 4-Door Refrigerator with AI Family Hub, Credential Sync uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE) technology to share data between devices on the server. Information can be safely shared between connected devices, and existing user data can be restored when a new product is purchased.

Samsung plans to expand the application of Knox Matrix’s Trust Chain, Cross Platform and Credential Sync to major products such as the refrigerator with AI Family Hub beginning next year.

Introducing Biometric Authentication

At SDC24, Samsung also announced that Passkey will be introduced next year to the refrigerator with AI Family Hub as well as home appliances equipped with the 7-inch AI Home LCD screen. Part of Credential Sync, Passkey is a digital credential that allows users to log in to home appliance apps and websites² using biometrics such as fingerprints on their smartphones.

With the increasing use of apps and web services, the risk of password leaks is on the rise. Passkey alleviates this concern and eliminates the inconvenience of having to remember passwords for each login.

Furthermore, Samsung is planning to apply Knox Vault to its AI home appliances starting next year to further improve hardware-based security. Samsung home appliances equipped with Knox Vault will store sensitive personal information such as passwords and biometric data on a separate hardware security chip — protecting sensitive information from OS-based security breaches or physical hacks.

Expanding Recognition From Top-Tier Organizations

Samsung is committed to improving the reliability of its AI home appliances by expanding security verification from authorized organizations. In February, the Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerator with AI Family Hub+ became the first in the global home appliance industry to receive the highest rating of Diamond in the IoT Security Rating conducted by leading certification company UL Solutions. Now, five products including the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo and the Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI have received the same rating — setting an industry record.³

▲ The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo received the Diamond security rating from UL Solutions.

UL Solutions’ IoT Security Rating uses a five-level rating system based on rigorous testing of hacking risks and the security capabilities of smart home appliances. The Diamond rating requires passing stringent evaluations including detecting malicious software tampering, preventing illegal access attempts and anonymizing user data. Samsung plans to expand Diamond certification to even more of its AI home appliances.

Additionally, Samsung conducts internal cyberattack simulations at least once a quarter to verify the security of its AI home appliances. The company’s software developers perform these hacking tests on products and services to identify vulnerabilities and create updates to address any security flaws.

“As the connected ecosystem of AI home appliances expands, the importance of security is growing exponentially,” said Miyoung Yoo, EVP and Head of the Software Development Team, Digital Appliances Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will continue to develop security solutions and achieve new certifications to ensure that users can experience peace of mind when using AI home appliances and services in Samsung’s ecosystem.”

¹ Samsung Knox is applied to select appliances launched in 2018 and later.
² Available on websites that support the international Fast Identity Online (FIDO) standard.
³ As of August 2024.

Samsung Newsroom captured some highlights from the event, which brought together developers and Samsung Electronics partners from around the world.

Exploring Samsung’s AI Roadmap at Tech Session

Tech Session at SDC24 became a platform for Samsung executives and employees to present the current state and future vision of Samsung’s AI innovations. This year, Tech Session was divided into five themes — Device AI, SmartThings, Responsible AI, Advanced Tech and Enterprise & Ecosystem. Each theme highlighted AI innovations spanning the entire product line including Galaxy AI, AI TVs and Bespoke AI appliances as well as the platforms that power these AI products. Discussions also touched on establishing a blueprint for enhanced security technologies.

Among the innovations discussed that captivated attendees were the AI capabilities of Samsung TVs, which have been refined to more accurately recognize users and contexts for optimal viewing. Also on the agenda were Bespoke AI appliances equipped with Bixby to upgrade the smart home experience. .

Additionally, the Samsung Health SDK Suite offered a glimpse into the future of digital health with its potential to transform the healthcare ecosystem.

Transforming AI-Driven Communication and Exchange at Open Stage

SDC24 featured diverse programs designed to foster communication and interaction among developers including Open Stage, where various external speakers shared their knowledge and industry expertise; a Q&A session with Tech Session speakers; and the Roundtable, discussion sessions for attendees to explore the exhibits and exchange ideas.

Developer Tiffany Janzen, the founder of TiffinTech, spoke about the future of everyday life shaped by the convergence of AI and IoT during Open Stage. Meanwhile, Q&A session attendees participated in lively discussions and shared valuable insights.

Experiencing AI-Powered Software Solutions at Tech Square

Tech Square, an exhibition space showcasing Samsung’s latest innovations, provided participants with a firsthand look at the company’s cutting-edge software and AI-based services.

Developers lined up to explore the latest AI features integrated into TVs, home appliances and more. The Generative Wallpaper feature on Samsung TVs as well as the Bespoke AI Family Hub in particular garnered a large amount of attention from developers.

Celebrating its 10^th anniversary, SmartThings evolved with AI to launch Home Insight and expand SmartThings Hub to a wider range of products.

HARMAN, a Samsung subsidiary, made an appearance at the event as well. The company introduced technology aimed at helping developers enter the automotive app market and demonstrated its Ignite platform, offering a variety of in-vehicle experiences including automotive apps.

Expanding Samsung’s Software Ecosystem With Partners

Partner companies leading software and device innovation were also present at Tech Square. The Partnership Zone provided a comprehensive overview of their devices and solutions within the SmartThings and Samsung Health ecosystem. Attendees experienced different real-life scenarios with treadmills, blood pressure monitors, smart body scales and more for an up-close look at the future of personalized healthcare at home through the seamless integration of Samsung Health and SmartThings.

Additionally, Samsung Wallet saw further advancements through collaborations with various partners, including smart key companies. For instance, the door lock functionality of SmartThings has been integrated into Samsung Wallet as a digital home key for improved convenience and usability. From mobile payment to storing digital IDs and event tickets, most of Samsung Wallet’s existing features were developed and launched in close collaboration with partner companies.

Diving Into Samsung’s Software at Code Lab

Featuring a total of 13 coding programs, Code Lab provided developers with hands-on coding experiences covering topics such as health, SmartThings, Samsung Wallet and automotive apps. After selecting their areas of interest, developers solved various software challenges under a time limit for an engaging and interactive experience.

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of Samsung Developer Conference, SDC24 welcomed approximately 3,000 developers, partners and media from around the world under the theme “AI for All — A Decade of Open Innovation and Beyond.”

Samsung Newsroom attended SDC24 to observe the possibilities of a new future powered by AI.

Personalized and Secure AI Experiences

The event commenced with a keynote address by Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. During his speech, Han unveiled a vision of delivering more personalized and secure experiences through multi-device AI technology.

“In the future, Samsung devices will recognize who is speaking and deliver a customized experience. What’s more, connected devices and sensors throughout the home will be able to recognize your location to provide another level of personalization,” he said. “As Samsung has the widest range of devices from mobile to TVs and home appliances, I believe we are best positioned to provide this customized AI experience.”

▲ Vice Chairman JH Han delivers his speech at SDC24.

Daehyun Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of Global AI Center, Samsung Research, outlined the company’s AI research direction and security technology strategy.

“We have more solutions that protect your privacy without compromising game-changing technology and experiences, for both on-device AI and cloud AI experiences,” he said. “Our generative AI for text, images and speech has come to life through work with our partners and plays a crucial role in shaping our vision for the future of AI.”

▲ EVP Daehyun Kim explains the intersection of AI and security.

AI-Driven Innovations for Smarter Experiences

Samsung is integrating AI across its portfolio to enhance customer experiences. The company announced plans to extend One UI beyond mobile devices to become the software experience for all Samsung consumer products.

“As we want more people to benefit from AI experiences, we will be expanding a selection of these Galaxy AI experiences beyond our flagship devices into our A series and continue to bring Galaxy AI to the entire Galaxy ecosystem,” said Sally Hyesoon Jeong, Executive Vice President and Head of Framework R&D, Mobile eXperience (MX) Business.

She also gave attendees a sneak peek into the forthcoming One UI 7. The beta version will be available to developers before the end of this year.

“We’re exploring a brand new UX design,” Jeong added. “One UI 7 will bring a fresh new look to the entire interface.”

▲ EVP Sally Hyesoon Jeong previews One UI 7.

“We’ve been working on new ways to integrate Bixby into our AI home to control appliances and improve experiences,” said Young Ah Lee, Vice President and Head of UX, Digital Appliances (DA) Business. “Our latest update for Bixby leverages AI technology to make your interactions with appliances as easy as talking to a friend.”

▲ VP Young Ah Lee discusses user experiences with Bespoke AI home appliances.

Moon-soo Kim, Vice President and Head of Application S/W R&D, Visual Display (VD) Business, shared how the upgraded Bixby helps users find and enjoy tailored TV content with simple voice commands. Meanwhile, Samsung AI Cast allows AI-generated materials from mobile devices to be sent directly to Samsung TVs.

“These kinds of interactions make Samsung TVs truly the best experience for AI interoperability,” he said.

▲ VP Moon-soo Kim highlights the new features of Samsung’s AI TVs.

In January of this year, Samsung launched Samsung Visual eXperience Transformation (VXT) — a next-generation content management solution. Alex YW Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Visual eXperience PM, Visual Display (VD) Business, showcased how users can create and organize B2B displays with AI and access a broad range of Pre-Integrated Repeatable Solutions from partners.

“As we look ahead to the future of VXT, we’re continuing to find new ways to partner with developer communities,” he said. “Join us in shaping this new ecosystem and producing the world’s best apps and services on VXT.”

▲ EVP Alex YW Lee emphasizes the importance of AI in the B2B space.

Platform Innovation and Responsible AI

In addition, Samsung revealed the latest SmartThings updates that rely on open collaboration and AI to offer more personalized and seamless user experiences.

“We just released Home Insight,” said Jaeyeon Jung, Executive Vice President and Head of SmartThings, Device Platform Center. “Designed to understand the way you live, it provides timely home reports and delivers recommendations tailored to your usage patterns, preferences and even the time of year.”

▲ EVP Jaeyeon Jung introduces the newest SmartThings services.

Hobum Kwon, Vice President and Head of Platform, Samsung Research, highlighted how Tizen OS includes AI models powered by Samsung’s neural processing unit chips and offers improved connectivity with Galaxy devices.

“Tizen’s clean software architecture ensures that Tizen devices receive OS upgrades for up to seven years,” he said.

▲ VP Hobum Kwon presents the newest features of Tizen OS.

Platform innovation is propelled by advanced security technology.

“Samsung is committed to advancing AI responsibly, and we have three core AI ethics principles — fairness, transparency and accountability — that guide everything we do,” said Shin Baik, Head of Security Assurance, Device Platform Center. “We believe that automating vulnerability detection is essential to keeping pace with this evolving threat landscape. This means that we use AI technology to conduct automated security checks on new products. You’ll see this first on Tizen products, and we’ll continue rolling this capability out across Samsung’s entire product and service portfolio.”

▲ Shin Baik, Head of Security Assurance, stresses the need for responsible AI innovation.

Building Tomorrow With Developers and Partners

Throughout the presentation, attendees witnessed Samsung’s latest software technologies and developer support initiatives. Samsung will continue growing its AI ecosystem through open collaboration with developers and partners to reinforce the company’s competitive edge in the AI era.

▲ Developers and partners watch the keynote at SDC24.

Samsung Electronics today held its annual Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Celebrating a decade of collaboration and innovation with developers, the company shared its vision for providing a more personalized and secure experience with the latest multi-device AI technology in the spirit of “AI for All.”

With about 3,000 developers, partners and media in attendance, Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics said, “We have continued our journey of innovation with our many developers and partners for the last ten years,” highlighting the importance of open collaboration to strengthen both competitiveness and mutual growth in today’s AI era.

JH shared further detail surrounding the company’s commitment to using AI technology to offer stronger security, advanced personalization, better family care experiences and new opportunities for B2B businesses. “Samsung Electronics will continue advancing AI technology to a level where AI automatically recognizes each user individually — from their voice to their location — to provide a more personalized experience,” he explained. “These efforts will create more convenient and secure multi-device experiences by leveraging Samsung’s AI-based software, platform innovation and security technology.”

In addition, the company announced that it will integrate the software experience of its major product lines — from mobile devices to TVs and home appliances — under the name One UI next year. By providing a cohesive product experience and committing to software upgrades for up to seven years, Samsung will continue to bring innovation for its customers.

To realize its AI for All vision, Samsung will also create AI for good, empowering innovators to leverage new technologies to break new ground, address societal challenges head-on and create a better world for future generations.

Samsung Reiterates AI for All Innovation

At SDC24, the company reiterated its commitment to use AI technology to open possibilities, protect personal information and enhance the daily lives of all who use it. Building on over a decade of investment into advanced intelligence technologies, Samsung shared how its commitment to AI for All is guiding the company’s research and innovation roadmap for developers and customers alike.

Inspired by the need to create AI rooted in personalization for every individual, Samsung’s AI is made for all; it’s for families who want to make managing their evening routines easier, homeowners who are getting used to new spaces, and creators and innovators exploring cutting-edge technologies for inspiration. Samsung is providing AI for All without compromising privacy by leveraging on-device AI capabilities, while continuing to offer game-changing performance through cloud and generative AI.

Samsung is also committed to developing AI to better our world, as all employees uphold the global AI ethics principles of “Fairness,” “Transparency” and “Accountability” for both developing and using AI.

The AI for All strategy will more closely integrate Galaxy AI on mobile devices to enhance productivity, creativity and communication; Bespoke AI appliances to simplify users’ daily life; AI-powered displays on Samsung smart TVs with Tizen; and cross-platform AI enhancements coming to Bixby, SmartThings and One UI 7.

A Sneak Peek at One UI 7

One UI has always been designed to bring users the most personalized, creative and productive experiences possible on mobile devices. Samsung previewed a sneak peek of One UI 7 at SDC24, highlighting its new UX focused on simple, impactful and emotive design alongside more ways to seamlessly integrate Galaxy AI features into daily activities. One UI 7 beta will be available to developers before the end of this year.

The AI Home Comes to Life

Samsung’s Bespoke AI appliances are bringing better experiences to the entire household, from the kitchen to the living room. With AI Vision Inside¹ in the refrigerator with AI Family Hub or AI-applied features like AI Floor Detect in the Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI, Samsung’s smart home appliances leverage the best of AI technology to make lives better, simpler and easier than ever.

That capability grows even stronger with the AI-upgraded Bixby.² Users can control their entire smart home from anywhere within earshot of a Bixby-enabled appliance. Bixby also provides accessibility benefits for users. For increased accessibility at home, it can open appliance doors with a simple call, without wake-up commands³ thanks to the Auto Open Door.

Bixby’s enhanced capabilities extend to Samsung smart TVs, as well. Users can now search for content using only descriptive details and customizing settings with multiple commands, thanks to Bixby. Inspired by a continued commitment to simplifying the lives of everyday users, the mobile remote control feature enables users to control their TV from their phone and Samsung AI Cast can send AI-generated results from mobile devices to the TV. Available from the TV home screen, users can enjoy images and content lists developed with generative AI, including an integration with ChatGPT, now on a bigger display.

Samsung is integrating AI across its visual display applications too, from AI Upscaling and AI Customization on smart TVs to offering a new Daily Board Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers to turn any smart TV screen into a one-stop-shop for daily information like weather, device health and local updates through a new partnership with Nextdoor.

Next-Generation Signage Solutions With VXT

Samsung also showcased the next generation of signage solutions with Visual Experience Transformation (VXT), its software platform and accompanying content management solution (CMS) for content production, operation and management. By using an AI-powered chatbot with the Pre-Integrated Repeatable Solution (PIRS) & Widget aNd Extension (WiNE) Framework, VXT offers efficient, streamlined signage solutions and allows developers to seamlessly integrate solutions and simplify processes on the platform.

Tizen Leverages On-Device AI for World-Class Performance

Samsung’s major OS Tizen is bringing its industry-leading experience to more devices and services, as Samsung has equipped certain AI-enabled home appliances with the AI Home,⁴ a 7-inch LCD touchscreen display.

Tizen is also getting a boost with Tizen AI services. Powered by the Samsung Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and optimized to suit Samsung products and respond to user needs, Tizen AI services will provide smarter, safer and more personalized experiences, from controlling echo and noise levels while watching TV or making video calls to analyzing users’ writing styles to improve notetaking.

Samsung’s commitment to enhancing experiences with AI is also reflected by stronger interoperability between Tizen and the Galaxy ecosystem. Multi-Control, which enables users to navigate and control both their smartphone and tablet using the same Bluetooth tools including mice and keyboards, will extend to smart monitors and TVs with Tizen.

Samsung has developed Tizen based on RISC-V⁵ for developers, and a new SDK for Tizen applications designed with RISC-V will be available in 2026.

Tizen also supports the latest version of Flutter, the cross-platform development framework, and will continue providing extension tools for app developers for a greater level of debugging and profiling.

SmartThings Takes New Leap Forward With AI and Expands to Health Experience

Over the past decade, Samsung SmartThings has grown into one of the largest connected platforms with more than 350 million subscribers and over 340 “Works with SmartThings” (WWST) partners.

Samsung is using advanced AI technology to unlock higher-level SmartThings experiences and explore a wider range of partnerships. SmartThings will play a key role as the groundbreaking technology that sets the company’s products and services apart.

One of the major updates coming to SmartThings this month is Home Insight,⁶ which analyzes user data, usage patterns, device history and home stats collected in real time to offer a better home experience. It also recommends features to optimize the home, such as powering off idle devices while away during a specific time of day or season. Plus, the Galaxy Tab S10 is equipped with the Home Insight Widget, so it can be conveniently used as a home dashboard to monitor and control the house.

Samsung also introduced its plan to have all its products with screens run the SmartThings Hub. This will make Samsung devices better at working together to take care of the home, and even includes connectivity with partner devices. The plan includes adding Edge AI⁷ technology based on the SmartThings Hub, which embeds AI capabilities in the home’s connected devices, contributing to the vision of a truly AI-enhanced home.

In the spirit of open collaboration and innovation, Samsung shared the details of its latest SmartThings partnerships. This included a new partnership with various smart key developers, including Schlage⁸ and Aqara,⁹ which will add the SmartThings Door Lock function to the Digital Home Key inside Samsung Wallet in 2025.

Sustainability was also highlighted, particularly a partnership between SmartThings and Kohler.¹⁰ Kohler’s Chief Sustainable Living Officer (U.S.) Laura Kohler joined Jaeyeon Jung, Executive Vice President and Head of SmartThings, onstage to share how the new integration will help users monitor and reduce water usage with smart showerheads and faucets.

Tobin Richardson, Head of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), virtually announced that Samsung SmartThings was the first service to adopt the Matter¹¹ 1.3 standard, playing a crucial role in the continued support and expansion of the Matter ecosystem.

Samsung also introduced a closer integration between SmartThings and Samsung Health. Girish Naganathan, CTO of the continuous glucose monitoring system (CGM) company Dexcom,¹² joined Samsung onstage to discuss the companies’ shared vision of more personalized, convenient health management at home, for both users and their loved ones.

Security as the Foundation for the AI Era

Finally, Samsung continued to highlight its commitment to robust security and privacy standards. With Samsung Knox, the company is continuing to invest in strengthening its security governance to ensure that the latest AI experiences never require the sacrificing of personal data. The blockchain-based, multi-device security solution Knox Matrix will expand from mobile devices to TVs and home appliances to further enhance security across multi-device experiences.

Samsung also highlighted the expansion of Passkey, which will come to Tizen beginning with 2025 TV models, the refrigerator with AI Family Hub and home appliances with AI Home. Passkey will bring greater convenience and security to users, while also supporting web browser-based logins through mobile QR code scanning.

Each of these features has a major role to play in keeping users more secure, developers supported, and devices offering the latest and greatest AI-powered innovations to make the most of our new AI era.

Samsung invites developers, creators and partners, among others, to join in its commitment to open innovation and better experiences enabled by connectivity. For additional information about SDC24, please visit developer.samsung.com/sdc.

¹ As of March 2024, AI Vision Inside can recognize up to 33 food items, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. If a food item is not recognizable, it may be listed as an unknown item. AI Vision Inside cannot identify or list any food items in the refrigerator door bins or freezer. It recognizes food items based on deep learning models, which may be updated periodically to improve accuracy.
² The update is available for appliances launched in 2024 including the Bespoke 4-Door French Door Refrigerator with AI Family Hub; Bespoke AI Laundry Combo; Bespoke Slide-in Range; Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI; and Bespoke AI WindFree Gallery Freestanding Air Conditioner.
³ The feature is currently available on select refrigerators and washing machines.
⁴ Does not mean all services available on the AI Home are AI or generate information or outcomes using AI. AI Smart Dial, AI Wash & Dry and Voice enabled with Bixby accessible through the AI Home utilize AI-based algorithms, which may be updated periodically to improve accuracy. AI-based algorithms may generate incomplete or incorrect information.
⁵ RISC-V is an abbreviation of “Reduced Instruction Set Computer,” which is a combination of CPU commands that enable faster and more efficient processing of complicated operations.
⁶ Summary and suggestion features are currently available only in the US and Korea and will gradually expand to other regions as of `24.10. Supported devices are Galaxy smartphones, tablets and Samsung smart TVs with plans for further expansion.
⁷ Edge AI is a technology that processes data with high-performance devices at home without going through the cloud. It enables faster data processing speed and more powerful security.
⁸ https://www.schlage.com/en/home.html
⁹ https://www.aqara.com/en/
¹⁰ https://www.kohler.com/en
¹¹ Matter: Connectivity standard recognized by CSA (Connectivity Standards Alliance) to improve interoperability between devices.
¹² https://www.dexcom.com/

Over the past century, home appliances have evolved to reduce the burden of household chores and add convenience to lives.

The accelerated development of these appliances is marked by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technology that analyzes usage environments and executes optimal functions to significantly alleviate inconveniences associated with household tasks.

To that end, Samsung Electronics is updating its home appliances every year. With software at the core, these products are transforming from bulky machines into advanced electronic devices perfect for everyday living.

AI Home Appliances Become Lifelong Partners

Samsung home appliances are gradually expanding their role as daily companions through AI. For instance, AI Vision Inside in the Bespoke AI Family Hub¹ recognizes food ingredients placed on the refrigerator’s shelves with the internal camera to create a food list and remind users of expiration dates. Meanwhile, the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo provides a streamlined washing and drying experience with an AI-customized course.

SmartThings offers an interconnected ecosystem of various home appliances and IoT devices that fit users’ lifestyles. Furthermore, the screens on Samsung’s AI home appliances combine the latest hardware and software to orchestrate a multi-device experience that lets users easily control appliances in their homes.

Software Updates With AI Voice Assist and Added Security

As home appliances become increasingly software-driven, regular updates are critical. Samsung brought more than 50 major feature updates to its core home appliance lineup this year through Smart Forward, the company’s software updating service via SmartThings.

Previously exclusive to the 2024 Bespoke 4-Door Refrigerator with AI Family Hub, Quick Share will now be supported on Family Hub refrigerators released in 2017 and later through a software update. Now, users can easily view photos and videos from their smartphone, continue browsing web pages, watch YouTube videos and even create personalized images with the Generative Wallpaper feature all from the Family Hub refrigerator’s large screen.

Samsung’s voice assistant was updated in late August to transform how users interact with their Samsung AI home appliances. The Bespoke 4-Door Refrigerator with AI Family Hub, Bespoke AI Laundry Combo, Bespoke Jet Bot Combo AI Steam and Bespoke AI WindFree Gallery Freestanding Air Conditioner² are equipped with the latest version of Bixby to better execute user commands based on natural language.

For instance, a user can ask the robot vacuum cleaner to clean the house and set a time to start the washing machine in one sentence. Bixby will understand the commands and execute each of them accordingly. Users can even hear verbal responses when asking about their air conditioner’s air filter or maintenance status.

In such an interconnected environment, the importance of security software cannot be overlooked. Samsung Knox helps users enjoy their latest AI home appliances with peace of mind. Recent Knox Matrix updates have been applied to the Bespoke 4-Door Refrigerator with AI Family Hub for enhanced security by allowing the device to check the security status of other connected appliances.

Accessibility Improvements Made for Everyone

Software improvements are making Samsung home appliances more accessible to everyone.

Last month at IFA 2024, Samsung unveiled Voice ID³ — a feature that recognizes the voices of each family member and offers tailored solutions based on personal characteristics such as schedules, interests and health conditions.

Starting this month, Samsung will offer Accessibility Sync so users can apply accessibility settings from their smartphones to home appliances during initial setup. In the future, this software will integrate with Voice ID to recognize users’ voices and synchronize personalized accessibility settings for each individual.

AI and software in home appliances are transforming everyday life. Samsung’s AI technology will predict and troubleshoot problems with SmartThings-connected home appliances and provide solutions from users’ smartphones. Moreover, remote diagnoses of software errors and system settings will improve the quality and lifespan of home appliances. Catch a glimpse of the futuristic life led by Samsung’s cutting-edge home appliances at the upcoming Samsung Developer Conference 2024 on October 3 in San Jose, California.

¹ The Bespoke AI Family Hub refrigerator can recognize and categorize up to 33 different food ingredients. Users must manually name and set expiration dates for other ingredients.
² The Bespoke AI WindFree Gallery Freestanding Air Conditioner is only sold in Korea.
³ Voice ID is expected to be available in 2025.

Samsung Electronics today announced that it will host the Samsung Developer Conference 2024 (SDC24) at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in California on October 3.

As the tenth edition of SDC, the event will celebrate a decade of open innovation and collaboration with developers, partners and customers with a focus on how to make the most of today’s AI innovation.

Participants are encouraged to livestream the Samsung SDC24 keynote at 10:00 am PT on October 3. The presentation will highlight the latest cross-platform innovation opportunities including ways to leverage SmartThings, Galaxy AI, Knox and Tizen for next-generation solutions. This will explore how developers can harness AI capabilities to create game-changing new apps and services while leveraging Samsung’s trusted platforms.

JH Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics, will open SDC24 with a keynote that celebrates Samsung’s vision of AI for All, which focuses on a more personalized and safe multi-device AI experience that encompasses mobile, TV and home appliances. He will also speak about Samsung’s principles for AI ethics, which is at the core of Samsung’s AI technology development. Other speakers include:

• Daehyun Kim, EVP, Head of Global AI Center, Samsung Research
• Sally Hyesoon Jeong, EVP, Head of Framework R&D, Mobile eXperience Business
• Moon-soo Kim, VP, Head of Application S/W R&D, Visual Display Business
• Alex Y Lee, EVP, Head of Visual eXperience PM, Visual Display Business
• Young Ah Lee, VP, Head of UX, Digital Appliances Business
• Ho-bum Kwon, VP, Head of Platform, Samsung Research
• Jaeyeon Jung, EVP, Head of SmartThings, Device Platform Center
• Shin Baik, Head of Security Assurance, Device Platform Center and more

Beyond the keynote address, SDC24 will feature breakout sessions open for attendees to collaborate and learn more about Samsung’s latest developer-focused platforms and services including SmartThings, Samsung Health, Tizen and more. Sessions will give participants opportunities to delve into its latest software developments and services, and they will also learn more about how to leverage Samsung’s AI solutions for new opportunities.

In addition, some sessions will be featured on the Open Stage, where attendees can get industry insights from experts and even meet up with a special guest speaker. Hands-on demos of the latest products and services will be available at Tech Square. At the Code Lab, developers can explore exciting new tools and software development kits (SDKs), as well as try out the latest Samsung Developers education platform, which covers a series of topics for participants to play, learn, and further develop their skills.

The keynote will be livestreamed through the Samsung YouTube and Samsung Developer sites at the time of the event.

For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference 2024, please visit http://developer.samsung.com/sdc. Further information can also be found on X (@samsung_dev), Facebook (@samsungdev) and Instagram (@samsung_dev) with the hashtag #SDC24.

With opening remarks from Jong-Hee Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device Experience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics, the presentations revealed how Samsung is crafting systems that help make lives smarter, safer, more convenient and more connected than ever before.

▲ Attendees take their seats at SDC 2022 in anticipation of the day’s wide-ranging Keynote

Read on to see Samsung Newsroom’s recap of the innovation and inspiration revolutionizing how we live and work both now and in the future.

Opening: A Seamless, Frictionless Experience

Jong-Hee Han opened up the day’s talks by underscoring the importance of convenience in an age of brilliant yet complex technologies. “At Samsung, our goal has always been to make our lives easier through technology innovation,” said Han. “But innovation can also be burdensome for users if convenience is not at the forefront. Our teams are determined to deliver devices that are as smooth and accessible as they are advanced.”

▲ Jong-Hee Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of DX Division at Samsung Electronics, welcomes attendees to SDC 2022.

Covering everything from Calm Technology to Knox Matrix to holistic household platforms like Bixby Home Studio and SmartThings, Han outlined a device and systems ecosystem that puts the user experience at the center. “The goal of all this is to give you an easier, seamless and more frictionless experience,” Han emphasized. “So you can focus on what matters most.”

A Home That Learns and Adapts Through SmartThings

Following Jong-Hee Han, Jaeyeon Jung, Vice President and Head of SmartThings, Mobile eXperience Business, discussed how Covid-19 galvanized teams at Samsung to prioritize the important things in life, particularly in the home. “If you’re like me, the past few years have been a time to prioritize what matters, to find moments to pause and refresh,” said Jung.

▲ Jaeyeon Jung, Vice President and Head of SmartThings, Mobile eXperience Business, outlines how the platform is helping realize a truly seamless, intuitive household device ecosystem.

Samsung’s SmartThings platform, Jung explained, is the perfect way to do this in your home. Thanks to a wide range of improvements to the household ecosystem platform, finding, setting up, onboarding and synchronizing new devices into your household will be easier and more efficient than ever. This includes Galaxy Quick Pair, Matter Hub connectivity, SmartThings Energy and SmartThings Music Sync, as well as boosted integration with partner systems and an expanded SmartThings website.

Matter: A Truly Harmonious Household Experience

At the end of her talk, Jung introduced Matthew McCullough from Google, who provided an overview of Matter, a system that lays the groundwork for true interoperability between devices in the home. Samsung is committed to Matter integration, and confident it will make the dream of a fully integrated household a reality.

▲ Google’s Matthew McCullough explains how the Matter interoperability system works, reinforcing Samsung and Google’s collaborative efforts to expand its integration.

By working closely together, Samsung and Google aim to make life for both users and device makers simpler and smoother, with multi-admin features that cut down on manual management and make Google Home and Nest Hub more accessible. “This ease of use across Samsung and Google is just the start, and we’re looking forward to delivering a more seamless, delightful home experience,” said McCullough.

Industry Collaboration Making Device Ecosystems More Open

▲ Mark Benson, Head of SmartThings U.S. at Samsung, expands on the company’s enthusiasm for Matter adoption and introduces the SmartThings Matter Early Access Program.

Continuing with the theme of interoperability, Mark Benson, Head of SmartThings U.S., emphasized Samsung’s commitment to supporting Matter. “To accelerate Matter adoption, we created the SmartThings Matter Early Access Program, where we work with major device manufacturers to ensure their Matter-enabled devices work seamlessly with SmartThings,” said Benson.

The SmartThings app, SmartThings Hub Core and SmartThings Cloud, Benson pointed out, are already prepared to support Matter. “It’s all about delivering interoperability right out of the box,” he said.

The Expanding Role of Bixby

Anil Yadav, Head of Bixby Lab at Samsung Research¹ America, took to the stage to discuss SmartThings’ bespoke speech platform and de facto voice in the home, including its exciting new feature: Bixby Home Studio. “With Bixby Home Studio, you can create experiences that span multiple devices and respond more intuitively to user commands,” said Yadav. “For example, if you ask Bixby to turn on your air conditioner, Bixby can check if you have any windows open and let you know to close them, saving energy.”

▲ Voice system expert and Head of Bixby Lab Anil Yadav lays out the platform’s evolving role in the home and celebrates the launch of Bixby Home Studio.

Ready to do everything from queuing up your next action movie on your Samsung Smart TV to boosting your mobile security with On-Device AI, Bixby is smarter and more powerful than ever.

Premium Security and Privacy for an Integrated Household

▲ Shin Baik, Principal Engineer of Security Team, Mobile eXperience Business, underscores the significance of strong security and personalized privacy, as exemplified by systems like Samsung Knox and Knox Matrix.

Samsung envisions more than just a convenient and integrated home experience. Its teams are also creating an experience that is as safe as it is smooth, as private as it is proactive. After Yadav’s Bixby talk, Shin Baik, Principal Engineer of Security Team, Mobile eXperience Business, discussed with the audience how top-notch innovations need top-notch security to go with them. Unwavering in its three security and privacy principles — transparency, choice and protection — Samsung has worked hard to develop platforms like Samsung Knox. This will keep everything from your phone to your refrigerator safe and secure, said Baik.

A new platform called Knox Matrix, in particular, is now on the frontline of multi-device protection. “Knox Matrix is your own private blockchain,” Baik explained. “Multiple devices share credentials, turning the ecosystem of devices into a shield that protects everyone.”

In step with these developments, of course, is Samsung’s insistence on a customizable privacy experience, which is provided by Samsung’s comprehensive Security and privacy dashboard. “We believe that you — and only you — should be making decisions about how your information is managed and stored,” said Baik.

A More Vibrant Content Ecosystem Than Ever

Sang Kim, Senior Vice President and Head of Product & Marketing at Samsung Electronics America, shared important insights on Samsung’s extensive media network, covering a range of recent successes.

▲ Sang Kim, Senior Vice President and Head of Product & Marketing at Samsung Electronics America, provides a roundup of Samsung’s diverse — and rapidly expanding — media network.

Samsung Gaming Hub, launched in June, is an all-in-one gaming solution that, thanks to partnerships with industry leaders like Xbox, lets players connect their controllers to Samsung TVs and access all the games they love without even needing a console or PC.

Samsung TV Plus, the FAST streaming TV and video platform that relaunched this summer, now reaches 24 countries and 465 million devices globally. It is projected to clock in an impressive three billion hours streamed by users by the end of 2022.

Thanks to broad reach, smooth monetization integration and an advertising environment optimized for both clients and users, Samsung streaming also offers an ideal platform for premium advertising.

“Today, Fortune 500 companies from around the world have leveraged Samsung TV Plus and our other advanced TV advertising solutions to reach valuable consumers,” Kim said.

Tizen’s Global Conquest

▲ Yongjae Kim, Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of R&D Team, Visual Display Business discusses all things Tizen, from the operating system’s global reach to its growing spectrum of applications.

Following Sang Kim, Yongjae Kim, Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of R&D Team, Visual Display Business, took to the stage to talk about Tizen, Samsung’s open source, Linux-backed operating system. Kim took the audience through a huge variety of developments in the Tizen journey, which is growing its capabilities to an ever-wider spectrum of uses and applications.

Leveraging partnerships with gaming leaders like Xbox, NVIDIA and Utomik, Tizen is helping bring a truly consolidated, uninterrupted gaming experience to users with Samsung Gaming Hub, with fantastic performance and image quality, Kim explained. It delivers stunning visual displays and blockchain wallet integration to Samsung TVs for better at-home art experiences, while also helping Smart Hub deliver the best in content searches and recommendations. Tizen Enterprise, meanwhile, is boosting B2B partners’ display and signage options, while Tizen Everywhere aims to expand licensing and bring the system to more countries.

“Since its launch ten years ago, Tizen now powers more than 330 million TVs, refrigerators and other smart devices,” said Kim. “At Samsung, we will continue to create Tizen experiences that transform and go beyond what many thought possible.”

One UI 5 and the “Your Galaxy, Your Way” Philosophy

Next up was Sally Hyesoon Jeong, Vice President of Framework R&D Group, Mobile eXperience Business, whose theme for the day was the company’s latest leap forward in the UI experience: One UI 5.

▲ Sally Hyesoon Jeong, Vice President of Framework R&D Group, Mobile eXperience Business, introduces One UI 5, the next stage of Samsung’s UI evolution and a distillation of the “Your Galaxy, Your Way” philosophy.

“On this stage three years ago, I shared our vision for One UI, the essence of the Galaxy experience,” Jeong began. “One UI truly captures the ‘Your Galaxy, Your Way’ philosophy by bringing users an intuitive, connected experience that is uniquely yours.”

Splitting the new UI update’s advancements into three areas — Personalization, Productivity and Possibility — Jeong shared a host of new and improved features. Personalization included deep customization enhancements, like Dynamic Lockscreen for smartphones, Watch Face Studio for Galaxy Watches and custom-built Modes and Routines, while health and security functions are also more adaptable than ever. The Productivity section included Bixby Text Call, improved phone-to-PC connectivity and multitasking upgrades like Taskbar improvements. Possibilities covered One UI 5’s integration with innovative Samsung Foldable devices and related functions like Flex Mode.

A Look Over the Horizon: Robotics and Health in Tomorrow’s Homes

The final talk before the wrap-up was from Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research. While many of the day’s talks focused on recent improvements, Seung has his eye on the innovations of tomorrow, aiming for no less than the merging of the physical and digital worlds.

“I’d like to invite you to look over the horizon, to a future dreamed of but not yet realized,” said Seung, who divided his presentation between the future of robotics in the home and Samsung’s ambitions to contribute to health & wellness research.

In the home robotics field, Seung discussed the company’s continued success with a household supported by advanced, AI-enhanced devices, including the object-detecting JetBot AI+ vacuum, the Bot Handy chore assistant prototype and even future plans for Samsung’s latest robot arm manipulation code, which will soon be available on GitHub.

▲ Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, discusses the company’s plans for a future where advanced robotics technologies support households and outlines Samsung’s ambitions in health & wellness research.

Moving on to the subject of health, Seung introduced Samsung Health Stack, an open source project from Samsung that aims to actively advance health & wellness research. “This is a full stack SDK, a mobile app for patients, a portal for researchers and a backend database,” said Seung. “A complete package of open-source tools designed for the easy creation of digital systems for the research of health and wellness.”

Closing: Building a More Sustainable Future With Samsung

To round off the talks, Jong-Hee Han returned to the stage to offer a final word, summarizing the technologies showcased at SDC and the course of the company’s future of innovation.

▲ Jong-Hee Han returns to the stage to conclude the day’s talks, ending on a proactive vision of a future driven by sustainable, eco-conscious technologies.

“I would like to talk about the future one more time,” he added. “The future of something very dear to my heart: our planet. I believe we have a responsibility to help create a sustainable future. We do that through Everyday Sustainability, a belief that every stage of the product lifecycle can be more sustainable.”

Han presented a range of Samsung sustainability commitments and environmental research directions, including responsible material sourcing, recycling, disposal, renewable energy and billions in investments toward meeting carbon emissions reductions.

“By 2027, we will run all DX operations on renewable energy,” Han said, ending the day on an optimistic note and a glimpse of a future for customers that is easier, more seamless, more frictionless and — crucially — more eco-conscious.

Watch the video below to see the complete recording of the SDC22 Keynote.

▲ Attendees explore the latest Samsung products at SDC22 booths.

¹ Samsung Research, acting as Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, leads the development of future technologies for the company’s Device eXperience (DX) Division.

As people become increasingly more health-focused, tech industry realized the value in pursuing projects that help individuals monitor their health and fitness. Principal Engineer Jinwoo Song from Samsung Research’s Data Research Team explained how Samsung Health Stack project helps developers and engineers optimize app development and more.

Q1. What does Samsung Health Stack do and what benefits does it ultimately provide?

Samsung Health Stack is an open source project that provides help in conducting research related to digital health using wearable devices, developing applications needed and creating tools for backend server and analysis in Android and Wear OS environment. By utilizing Samsung Health Stack, IT developers and engineers can save time and cost needed for developing the right environment, and researchers can focus more on conducting research studies that utilize new digital data. I believe that such convenience for development will be a great foundation for various forms of digital health care research and new data-based technologies.

Q2. What was the focus of the open source when designing Samsung Health Stack?

We designed it by analyzing the user experience of everyone involved in healthcare research so that the solution can accommodate the entire process of recruiting participants, collecting data and analyzing data. When there were some difficulties during the course of the development, we found solutions through health care-related cooperation with many research institutions.

In addition, we made effort to provide the structure that can continue to be scaled up to handle new forms of data and devices that become the interest of digital health researchers. In particular, we’ve designed the structure so that only certain necessary parts can be selected and expanded for use in order to enable application in various cases that go beyond clinical research, such as the area of care, etc.

Q3. What do you think the direction of development will be going forward for data-based health-care technologies?

Due to the technological advancement including AI, and the transition to aging society, the digital technology that centers on consumers and data is becoming more important in the field of health care. In order to respond to such changes, it is important to have the capability to safely manage and precisely analyze various data on users.

We believe that a world in which everyone will be able to receive customized, optimal health care solutions with data on users’ everyday life will come in the future. We’ll continue to make effort to develop technologies and products to make this possible, and we look forward to seeing many developers participate in this effort.

In order to create the best product experience, Samsung’s One UI platform offers a simple and intuitive interface across all of its devices, putting the user at the center of its unified device experience. Content Strategist Josh Ross from Samsung’s Core UX Group of MX Business shared the inspiration behind One UI and how it was created with users in mind.

Q1. What is One UI and what experiences does it provide to users?

One UI is the unified platform for Samsung Galaxy products, from phones and tablets to watches and Galaxy Books. It creates a single, seamless experience that empowers users to get the most from their Samsung products.

Q2. To create an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for users, One UI adheres to four key principles: simplicity, effortlessness, consistency and authenticity. Can you explain why these principles are important for development of One UI and how you think this enhances the mobile experience for users?

You need principles so you can be sure your design is heading in the right direction. We’ve chosen these four principles because they put the focus on the user, which is what we always want to do. Simplicity helps users focus on what matters. Effortlessness means that you don’t have to struggle to get things done. Consistency means that things work the way you expect them to, which helps to make things effortless. And authenticity is about creating experiences that feel natural, like a part of your own self-expression. When these principles come together, the result can be very powerful but also subtle. You don’t always notice all the work that goes into the design, and that’s actually good. The best design is almost invisible.

Q3. Why are partnerships an essential part of One UI? What are the benefits of partnerships for One UI development?

Partnerships are a huge part of the One UI experience. As good as Samsung is, we need the insight and expertise of others to deliver the best experience to users. Partnerships make apps like SmartThings and Samsung Wallet possible, so that you can do amazing things like control your car or your lights, make payments, board an airplane and so much more, right from inside One UI. Partnerships enrich our Samsung Health content with fitness expertise about everything from sleep coaching to body composition to mindfulness. Partnerships add flavor to your chats with GIFs from Giphy and Tenor, stickers, fun camera features on Snapchat and much more. Partnerships like the Global Goals app, a collaboration between Samsung and the UN, help bring awareness to important causes.

We want to empower our users to do things the way they want, with the apps and services they love. Partnerships are a huge part of that.

Q4. Going forward, what are some things users can expect from Samsung’s One UI?

We have a lot of things we’re announcing at SDC this year, so I don’t want to give everything away, but you can always expect further refinement and improvement. We look at everything from icons and animations to how you organize and find things and so much more. We’re learning more and more from our users about how the foldable experience changes things, so keep looking for exciting developments in the area of unique features for the Galaxy Flip and Galaxy Fold.

Samsung has also partnered with HealthTap to provide telemedicine services through its Smart TVs. Samsung’s Tizen, an open-source operating system, helped developers optimize the service for use on Smart TVs. Sean Park, Senior Product Manager from the Experience Planning Group of Visual Display Business, explained more about accessing telemedicine through Samsung’s Smart TVs.

Q1. How did Tizen help with the development of this service?

Samsung Electronics’ smart operating system (OS) Tizen provided the grounds for easy navigation on the large screen display. Tizen is very quick to deploy as evidenced by what we were able to achieve in three months’ time.

Q2. What are the benefits of accessing telemedicine services through Samsung Smart TVs?

Everything nowadays has gone remote. We want to provide Samsung users with a more convenient way to access medical care, which is telemedicine.

Samsung’s collaboration with HealthTap allows you to see a doctor through a large screen from the comfort of your home, creating a more immersive telehealth experience. If you want to access services including mental health counseling, you can do that with Samsung Smart TVs. For those who are a bit older and whose vision makes it difficult to use a small mobile screen, or for those who need to hold small children while consulting a doctor, they can easily access telehealth services through Samsung Smart TVs. We want everyone to be able to easily see a doctor from home, which we believe is not only convenient but necessary.

Ultra-wideband technology (UWB) has been recently gaining more and more attention in the smart device industry. Principal Engineer Haeyoung Jun from Samsung Research’s Standards Research Team talked about the importance of standardization of UWB and how it could shape the future of the industry.

Q1. What is the role of the FiRa Consortium that Samsung Electronics established in 2019 with key industry players, and what specific activities does it do?

The FiRa Consortium develops the interoperability standard and certification program to enable consumers to use services powered by Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology in smart devices across devices made by different manufacturers.

After the FiRa Consortium was initially established by only a few companies, including Samsung Electronics, there are now more than 115 member companies participating in defining the interoperability standard together. Furthermore, FiRa is exploring various applications that utilize UWB, and is cooperating with multiple standard organizations across various industry verticals for the standardization of these applications.

Q2. We’d like to know why UWB technology is gaining attraction again recently and how it is moving forward.

As many service providers and manufacturers investigate use scenarios utilizing relative location information obtained by direct communication among devices without heavy infrastructures, the barrier to implementing UWB technology and applications have been lowered. Along with Samsung Electronics, global companies are also implementing UWB into their devices. As the number of UWB enabled products increases in the market, there will be motivation to install UWB infrastructures as well. We anticipate that, if just one or two game-changing UWB applications emerge in the market, the UWB ecosystem will expand rapidly.

Q3. We’d like to know what the new era of wireless communications envisioned through UWB technology standardization would look like in detail.

UWB technology allows your own devices to detect the location, including distance and direction, of other UWB devices in proximity. It also enables the secure data transactions among devices as well as secure internal interfaces, therefore UWB can provide different type of location-based services that GPS is unable to. For instances, UWB brings the same effect as tagging NFC to a reader even with the smartphone placed in a pocket or bag. With the standardized UWB technology, consumers will be able to access new convenient services across multiple verticals.

Samsung Electronics held its annual Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) today in San Francisco, bringing together developers, creators and designers to explore seamless, connected experiences powered by Samsung.

During the event, Samsung shared more about its commitment to creating simplified, game-changing customer experiences, including the company’s updated vision for SmartThings as it evolves from a connectivity platform to an enabler of smarter lifestyles. From deeper integration with Bixby to seamless connectivity with Matter-compatible devices, SmartThings is creating a richer, more open world that empowers all users to streamline their connections and their daily lives.

“At Samsung, we continuously innovate our devices, platforms and services to be simpler and more convenient. I am proud to share the next generation of our work, like SmartThings, to further our collaboration with partners and developers,” said Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. “As technologies become more complex, we will always search for ways to make life easier, more connected, and more flexible, so our consumers can focus on what matters most.”

Connecting Platforms and Devices With Calm Technology

Samsung’s vision of seamless connectivity is inspired by the philosophy of Calm Technology — where devices instantly work together, so consumers can save time on setup and get right into the experience. To realize this vision, Samsung reimagined SmartThings and its connected services and partnerships, including Samsung’s Hub Everywhere, extending its capabilities to the entire smart home with audio and visual data as well as SmartThings Energy, SmartThings Pet and SmartThings Cooking. Samsung also partnered with Philips Hue to integrate Philips Hue Sync right into Galaxy devices so smart home lighting can match with music.

The seamless experience will extend beyond Samsung’s ecosystem through SmartThings’ integration with Matter and Samsung’s membership in the Home Connectivity Alliance. Google and Samsung have worked together to enable users to find and link their devices across platforms by building multi-admin feature on Matter devices. The collaboration will bring more devices and users into the connected home in the future.

Bixby has been integrated more deeply with SmartThings, a tool for developers to build more intelligent voice user interface experiences. As Samsung’s representative voice assistant platform, Bixby has evolved to become the on-device AI solution able to control individual Galaxy devices, as well as the cross-device experience throughout the Samsung ecosystem. With the new Bixby Home Studio, developers can now build differentiated, customized experiences for the SmartThings platform. In addition, Bixby will be even more widely available to users with support for Latin American Spanish, starting in November.

As the smart home is becoming more advanced, Samsung is introducing a new security paradigm, enabling Samsung devices to protect each other. Samsung Knox Matrix¹ is a private blockchain based platform that turns eligible Samsung devices into a shield to protect users’ entire device ecosystem — from Galaxy devices to TVs and home appliances. Plus, users can customize personal privacy settings with the new Security and privacy dashboard, which scans for vulnerabilities, recommends security updates and gives users data management options to keep privacy and security top of mind.

Personalized Services for Better Experiences

In the past year, Samsung TV Plus — Samsung’s free, ad-supported streaming TV and video (FAST) platform available on Samsung Smart TVs² and mobile devices — reached 100% growth in viewership,³ and projects three billion hours streamed by the end of the year. To build on this momentum, Samsung TV Plus has expanded its offering by adding partnerships with Lionsgate and Vice Media, providing 8K video on demand. Samsung TV Plus has also gone through a redesign, to reflect its extraordinary variety of content with more than 1,600 channels across 24 countries. Samsung TV Plus is the premium choice for a seamless ad experience, where stream stitching makes ad playback simpler than ever.

After 10 years of service, Samsung’s Tizen operating system (OS) continues to offer best-in-class user experiences. The Samsung Gaming Hub brings better, faster and more convenient access to gaming on Samsung Smart TVs, provided by industry-leading partners, such as Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Utomik and Amazon Luna. Samsung Gaming Hub bridges expertise in hardware and software to integrate features like AI Upscaling and multitask functions to make gaming on Samsung Smart TVs an immersive, optimized experience.

Tizen OS is also expanding to offer NFTs support with partners like Art Token, laCollection and Nifty Gateway. For B2B customers and developers, Samsung is providing B2B APIs specific to industries and use cases like Syncplay, which allows content to be synchronized and played in multiple signages. Tizen is also introducing SALT, a new content conversion solution to display the highest-quality HDR10+ content on supported TVs.

Your Galaxy, Your Way With One UI 5

By introducing the new One UI 5, Samsung has empowered users to easily customize their device’s look and feel, while enhancing productivity and providing amazing experiences across devices and platforms. One UI 5 brings more personalized experiences with custom-built Modes and Routines, and a Dynamic Lock screen that displays multiple visuals on your phone, your Galaxy Watch and other One UI 5 devices. With the new Bixby Text Call feature, Bixby Voice will answer calls on your behalf and share typed messages with the caller, speaking aloud as if you had answered. One UI 5 also introduces new daily health solutions to help track health and wellness in one place. This includes the Samsung Privileged Health SDK, which enables developers to build apps that leverage the BioActive Sensor on the Galaxy Watch.⁴

Future-Forward Investment and Research

Samsung Research is looking beyond today’s horizon to innovate for a better tomorrow, full of relentless innovation and open collaboration. Samsung Research is making its robot arm manipulation code available on GitHub, enabling academics, researchers and developers to examine new ideas in robotic manipulation.

The team at Samsung Research was also inspired by the new wellness features Samsung has introduced, particularly on the Galaxy Watch5. To find new use-cases leveraging these features, Samsung Research is working with universities and healthcare institutions that will explore areas like heart health, stress, blood pressure, lung health and neuroscience. As a result, Samsung is offering a full stack SDK — the Samsung Health Stack — which will jumpstart research into important health fields and spark new development.

Samsung invites developers, creators, partners and more to join in on its commitment to open collaboration and seamless experiences. For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2022, please visit developer.samsung.com.

¹ Starting as early as late 2023, Samsung Knox Matrix will be initially available on selected Samsung devices. Support for other manufacturers’ products will follow later.

² Samsung TV Plus is available for selected Samsung Smart TVs only.

³  Viewership from September 2021 to August 2022 compared to viewership from September 2020 to August 2021

⁴ Available on Galaxy Watch4 series and Galaxy Watch5 series.

Today’s lifestyles are more connected than ever — from our smartphones to our smart homes, it is easier than ever to get more done with our devices. However, as our connectivity grows, so, too, can our concerns around maintaining peace of mind when using connected device ecosystems.

Understanding that security and privacy are top priorities for its users, Samsung Electronics is taking its device security experiences to the next level with the upcoming solution, Samsung Knox Matrix at this year’s Samsung Developer Conference (SDC).

From A to Z: Understanding Today’s Device Ecosystems

Samsung believes protection must be collaborative, end-to-end and in real-time, so that our approach is constantly evolving to stay ahead of threats and keep our users safe. That’s why Samsung smart devices are protected by the Samsung Knox security platform, which provides defense-grade security certified for use by the many top government agencies around the world.

Nowadays, more than ever before, we are able to enjoy seamless connectivity and operation as we go about our daily tasks and routines, be it undertaking a work task, enjoying a workout or winding down at the end of the day.

However, while the device ecosystems we harness daily do make things more convenient, one can never be totally free of worries around the potential security threats that exist simply due to the internet connectivity of one’s devices. After all, if just one device is compromised, all others are at risk. Multi-device protection is the next battlefront for security and privacy.

This is why Samsung has come up with Samsung Knox Matrix, a revolutionary concept for multi-device protection with next level security.

Samsung Knox Matrix: Powered by Device Connectivity

Samsung Knox Matrix will function as a user’s own private blockchain system, wherein your connected devices enhance security through multi-layered mutual monitoring. In order to protect user’s smart home from unauthorized access and to make the login process more convenient, Samsung Knox Matrix will share credentials device-to-device and protect sensitive information even between trusted devices. Whether your Samsung devices are based on Android, Tizen, or other OS, Samsung Knox Matrix will be able to provide a unified security SDK. With all that, Samsung will continue to advance common security standards for across various Samsung connected devices.

With Samsung Knox Matrix, we envision that users need not compromise on their connectivity in order to stay protected. Samsung Knox Matrix is set to provide the devices within a user’s ecosystem with fewer vulnerabilities through strong, diverse security practices.¹

With Samsung Knox Matrix in your back, a smartphone streaming to a TV or connected to an air conditioner become more secure.

Stay tuned to learn more about Samsung Knox Matrix and its security approach designed for today’s connected world.

¹ Samsung Knox Matrix cannot guarantee complete protection against all vulnerabilities within a user’s connected device ecosystem.

“Samsung’s health foundation is rooted in our advanced hardware and sensor technology and is bolstered by our open ecosystem and collaborative approach,” said TaeJong Jay Yang, Executive Vice President and the Head of Health R&D Team at Mobile eXperience Business, Samsung Electronics. “That is why I am excited to announce expanded developer tools, APIs and partner offerings that allow third-party experts, research centers and universities to advance wearable tracking and insight capabilities for a wider health, wellness and safety.”

Samsung Privileged Health SDK: Advancing Preventative Safety in Driving

Samsung is collaborating with select industry leaders to develop personalized health services. With safety as one of Samsung’s focus areas, these collaborations will deliver all-new preventative tools to make roads safer by identifying early signs of driver fatigue and stress.

Samsung’s work with Tobii, a global leader in eye-tracking and attention computing that develops software to monitor drowsiness, is one example. If users choose to, Samsung’s Privileged Health SDK enables Tobii to sense real-time heart rate captured by Galaxy Watch sensors and process them to determine the user’s level of drowsiness. Also, Harman, a leader in connected car technology, audio innovations and IoT solutions, has recently introduced Ready Care, a complete automotive in-cabin sensing and tailored solution for driver safety and comfort. In addition to distraction, fatigue and vital sign sensing, users can allow Ready Care to measure cognitive load and stress level and can provide suggestions for alternative routes to lower a driver’s stress.

Health Services: New Fall Detection API for Enhanced Safety Capabilities

Health Services provides APIs that allow developers and third parties to harness the powerful sensors and algorithms on the Galaxy Watch for more accurate and advanced health offerings. Samsung is introducing a new API to the ecosystem that offers adjustable sensitivity for Fall Detection, strengthening preventative safety and setting the stage for even more potential offerings.

Developers can now create services using Galaxy Watch’s Fall Detection algorithms that sense a user’s stumble or fall by combining different sensors including an accelerometer and gyroscope. This API enables development of apps for users who may encounter unexpected accidents. Furthermore, Galaxy users are even able to adjust sensitivity levels — whether standing still, moving, or exercising — via the Galaxy Wearable app. Like sleep tracking that senses restless movements or falls from bed to paint a more complete picture of a user’s sleep, this API opens all new opportunities for developers and users alike.

End-to-End Research Solution: Accelerating Medical Service and Research

Samsung is also introducing an open-source project that provides end-to-end solutions combining SDK, backend system and portal for a variety of health applications. This all-in-one healthcare toolset empowers research and clinical experiences — starting at the developer level — by delivering advanced insights through Galaxy Watches and wearables to support medical research at institutions, hospitals, wellness centers and beyond.

Researchers can use this open source project to build modules that enable participants to join a study in a frictionless and informed way, streamlining the onboarding process. Flexible survey templates are also in place to satisfy the ever-changing needs of organizations. From there, relevant data and insights are gathered more easily from wearable devices, while participants are guided with actionable insights throughout the process. Encrypted participant data is then transmitted to the backend system where health and medical communities monitor and analyze the collected insights to inform patient treatment plans, upcoming research and much more. More details of the new project will be announced at SDC22 keynote by Sebastian Seung, President and the Head of Samsung Research.

Health Connect: Greater Insights and Data Control

Health Connect, announced in collaboration with Google during the spring of 2022, offers developers a single set of APIs enabling the seamless creation of new fitness and health experiences. Currently available in beta, Health Connect offers users centralized privacy controls that make it easy to give permission to the health and fitness apps they want to share their on-device data with. Now, Samsung Health and Fitbit, along with leading health and fitness apps including Leap Fitness, MyFitnessPal and Withings have adopted Health Connect to enable a more impactful and holistic wellness experience. And with a user’s permission, app developers can leverage certain data shared through Health Connect for use in their own applications in order to provide users with a more complete picture of their health.

Samsung is committed to giving its community — including users, third parties, developers and beyond — enhanced tools and resources to build and benefit from more connected and diverse health services. As part of Samsung’s overarching wellness initiatives, the company will continue to deliver an expansive ecosystem — which the Samsung community will hear more about during the SDC22 — that empowers users with more insights and information on health and wellbeing.

The new smart TVs powered by Tizen follow the announcement of Samsung’s Tizen TV Platform Licensing program at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) in 2021. The licensing program allows other TV brands to take advantage of Tizen OS, which provides industry-leading smart features, content discoverability tools, apps and modern user interface for the ultimate smart TV experience.

To support the seamless adoption of Tizen OS, Samsung collaborates with a selection of partners on content licensing and hardware optimizations. These partnerships give many TV brands access to a whole world of entertainment that Samsung Smart TVs exclusively provide, while also allowing Tizen to leverage its ever-expanding ecosystem to strengthen its offerings. Key features that the users of the licensed TV brands will gain access to include:³

• Samsung TV Plus, Samsung’s free streaming TV and video platform that will allow users to enjoy hundreds of live channels, entertainment, news, shows and sports — for free.
• Universal Guide, allowing easy browsing and discovery of all content across different streaming apps, along with personalized recommendations so users can spend more time watching and less time searching.
• Bixby, a voice assistant platform that will provide users with more convenient way to explore smart TVs. Users can tell Bixby to search, watch, or perform various features.

Since Samsung teamed up with the Linux Foundation to unveil the first version in 2012, Tizen OS has made an exponential growth over the past decade. To date, around 200 million people from 197 countries are using Samsung Smart TVs powered by Tizen, and, the number is expected to expand with the latest addition of Tizen-powered smart TVs.

“2022 has been a memorable year for Tizen OS as we celebrate its 10^th anniversary and the very first Tizen-powered smart TVs available from other brands,” said Yongjae Kim, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Starting with these new Tizen-powered smart TVs, we will continue to expand the licensing program and introduce Tizen OS and its ecosystem to more products and brands around the world.”

For more details, please visit www.samsung.com.

¹ Tizen TV brands include Akai, Bauhn, Linsar (distributed by Tempo), RCA, Vispera (distributed by HKC) Sunny and Axen (distributed by Atmaca).

² Akai, Bauhn, Linsar Tizen TVs are available as of September 2022 in Australia. Other brands will be available later in Q4 2022.

³ Available smart features may vary depending on country.

Samsung recognized the importance of OS early on and subsequently began research and development. In April of 2012, Samsung unveiled the first version of Tizen, a Linux-based open-source platform. 10 years later, at this year’s SDC, Samsung will unveil its new vision for Tizen 7.0.

▲ The team behind the research and development of Tizen OS at Samsung Research: VP Jinmin Chung, Head of the Platform Team (center), and researchers Seonah Moon of the MDE Lab (left) and Jin Yoon of the Tizen Platform Lab (right)

Since the first version of Tizen was released, much time has passed and Tizen has evolved in a variety of ways. To learn the details behind the development of Tizen, Samsung Newsroom met with Samsung Research’s Vice President Jinmin Chung and researchers Jin Yoon and Seonah Moon, who have been working on Tizen since the beginning.

The First Step in Providing a Universally Connected Experience

Tizen is a Linux-based open-source platform led by Samsung and it also supports all types of smart devices. With the aim of being utilized in various types of Samsung products to support smooth product operation, Tizen has been equipped in about 330 million smart devices as of the end of 2021.

“We needed Tizen to differentiate Samsung’s devices from others and to provide a different service and user experience,” VP Chung said. “It’s already been 10 years since Tizen was first developed. We experienced challenges in the initial development stage, but we felt supported by the people who believed in the possibility and usability of Tizen and rooted for us. We focused on the research proudly knowing that we were leading Samsung’s own independent OS development project,” he added.

In 2014, for the first time, Tizen was equipped in Samsung’s Gear 2, a wearable device, proving its viability through its commercialization. Furthermore, a year later, Tizen was used in the 2015 Samsung Smart TV product line up that set a new bar of smart TVs.

Why Tizen?

Tizen has many advantages that enable it to offer the highest performance across Samsung’s devices. First, Tizen’s flexibility allows it to be easily applied to a variety of smart devices. In order to make this possible, Tizen went through multiple platform improvement processes. Several profiles were established based on the different types of products. Then, Tizen Common, which is the common module for all products, and the Specialized Module, which is needed for certain products only, were created. The structure is designed in a way that allows the platform to be quickly modified and applied to new products as well. This enables Tizen to be utilized in a wide range of products, including smart TVs, refrigerators and air conditioners.

Additionally, Samsung utilized its advanced know-how and experience in commercializing embedded system software when developing Tizen. The Tizen platform is optimized to perform well while using minimal memory and low power. It’s an open-source platform that can be used by anyone, and it supports optimized performance for immediate commercialization.

Tizen is also convenient for new product development because it is Samsung’s own independent OS. The platform can be modified as desired to add new features and services to products in a timely manner.

“Across the world, only a handful of companies own their own independent OS,” Chung said. “The fact that Samsung has its own OS called Tizen means that Samsung has become a company proficient in developing not only hardware but software as well,” he emphasized.

The People Behind Tizen: 10 Years of History

Many developers put much effort into the development and evolution of Tizen.

Researcher Jin Yoon has been participating in the Tizen project since its early stages, meaning he has witnessed the growth of Tizen firsthand. “Starting with Smart TVs, the applications for Tizen are gradually increasing, and the system is evolving and advancing further,” Yoon said. “In addition, the implementation of a new development language, framework and infrastructure makes development more convenient and increases the productivity of developers. Now, we’re working hard to secure usability that is appropriate for each product group that uses Tizen,” he continued.

“The code sources of Tizen are very stable because they’ve gone through actual commercialization. On top of that, they come with performance-specific details and security as well. This means third party developers can trust and find these sources,” Yoon said.

Expanding the application of Tizen to more devices and creating an ecosystem for Tizen is important for improving the usability of a product, but active participation in open-source communities is also crucial. This is because open-source communities enable community members to share problems and come up with solutions together, directly contributing to the improvement of software. In order to manage this, Seonah Moon from the MDE Lab, who’s been developing Tizen for eight years, is responsible for tasks involving open-source maintenance. Countless open sources were also used for Tizen’s development. Moon monitors each open source, analyzes its errors and shares her opinion on them to help outside developers access Tizen more easily.

A Bridge That Connects All of Samsung’s Products Together

Tizen is more than just an OS for Samsung’s developers and researchers.

Since the platform’s development requires constant maintenance, this means developers must continue to hone their skills. Tizen motivated each member of the development team to continue learning and improving their software skills. The developers of Tizen have grown into experts specializing in different areas. Since the team’s initial start, they have grown to accumulate many platform codes over the last 10 years. They also constantly learned by voluntarily participating in study group meetings.

“Tizen is like a bridge that connects all of Samsung’s products together,” Moon said. “Cooperation among business divisions is a must for utilizing the OS in different products. Through this cooperation, we can share our development knowledge with one another and also create a new service based on our OS,” Moon continued.

An Interconnected Device Experience With Tizen

Tizen has continued to evolve to allow all devices around us, including wearables, TVs, refrigerators and even robot vacuum cleaners, to provide new user experiences. When asked about what the future of Tizen will look like, the developers explained their ambitions to continue connecting devices using Tizen.

“We’re now living in an era where everything is connected to one another through the Internet of Things (IoT),” said Yoon. “By increasing the productivity of Tizen app development, I’d like to provide an innovative user experience where all Samsung products are connected to one another, creating an interconnected product ecosystem,” he explained.

“I’d like to lead the efforts in expanding Tizen’s use in a variety of ways by discovering new scenarios and utilizing even more advanced technologies,” said Moon when explaining her ambitions. “By growing together with Tizen, I’d like to become the ‘maintainer’ or the key contributor to the open-source project,” she continued.

“I dream of a future in which Tizen is equipped in all the devices that people use in their daily lives, enabling various devices to operate organically as if they’re one and providing intelligent services, like the metaverse,” Chung said. To enable this, Samsung Research is developing various technologies with many teams in order to manifest a future in which various Tizen devices are all connected through the OS, providing a Multi-Device Experience (MDE), modular AI and more.

The infinite possibilities of Tizen will be showcased at SDC 2022 this year. At the conference, Samsung Research will share how easy it is to make new devices based on the flexibility of Tizen 7.0, and how the new version of Tizen can strengthen intelligent services. As it continues to evolve in line with the era of hyper-connectivity and intelligence, the future of Tizen is bright and its applications are limitless.

During the event, Samsung highlighted its consumer-centric approach to innovation. In particular, the company showcased how advancements in AI, IoT and security work alongside the breadth of Samsung’s portfolio to create experiences that fit into how people live, ultimately unlocking a new era of connectivity and collaboration.

“We are proud of the pioneering work we are able to do in partnership with the creative developer community,” said DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “As society becomes more closely connected through new tools and devices, we want to make people’s lives easier and smarter – wherever they are.”

Platforms Designed for Connected Experiences

A strong platform of technologies across AI, IoT and security enhances the consumer experience and accelerates the ability of developers to build creative applications. Samsung detailed its plans to strengthen core platform technologies such as Bixby, SmartThings and Samsung Knox.

During the SDC21 keynote, Samsung announced improvements to Bixby, which has become a central part of the user experience for more than 300 million Samsung devices. Bixby now uses on-device AI and deep neural networks to process commands on devices themselves. Thanks to on-device AI, this development makes the service up to 35% faster than before.

For developers, Samsung also announced the Bixby Home Platform, which serves as an intelligent layer between Bixby’s natural language processing and SmartThings. With the platform, voice commands can now be executed more intelligently, taking into account the state and context of various devices.

Samsung made further announcements with regard to SmartThings, including how the platform will be fully integrated with Matter, the newest standard in smart home compatibility. Matter solves developer interoperability challenges and with an expansive list of partners, will be the catalyst that makes smart home connectivity nearly effortless. SmartThings Hub software will also be embedded into the Samsung product portfolio, which includes Samsung Smart TVs and Family Hub refrigerators.

Samsung believes that consumer data and personal privacy is just as important as the experiences they enable. Samsung is committed to providing a seamless consumer experience, and to ensuring that its devices and services are secure from beginning to end. Samsung Knox, the company’s defense-grade security platform, offers built-in protection for more than 100 million Samsung devices. To further secure consumer data, the Samsung Knox Vault comes in a combination of security-specific hardware (a new secure processor and isolated secure memory) and new integrated software that shields the most secure data from the Android OS and applications. During the SDC21 keynote, Samsung highlighted the importance of collaboration and its philosophy of open innovation to improve security and privacy, reiterating its work to continue releasing security analysis tools as open source projects.

Samsung also outlined its Privacy Principles at SDC21, highlighting the three commitments that guide all innovation at the company: Protection, Choice and Transparency. With these principles, consumers, developers and partners are given the information needed to make decisions about how data is managed. The company offers users the option to review and manage their permissions from the privacy setting on their Galaxy devices and Smart TVs and discloses Samsung’s privacy policies through the Privacy Portal. Going forward, Samsung will collaborate with global security experts while continuing to release open source security analysis tools to make its ecosystems more secure.

Tizen Takes Smart TV to New Heights

Based on its ‘Screens Everywhere, Screen for All’ vision, Samsung continues to build on its position as the world leader in TVs by developing new experiences that enhance connectivity, functionality and immersive entertainment. At SDC21, Samsung introduced various ways that Samsung TVs are enabling new experiences, including:

• Video communication based on partnership with Google to allow users to enjoy better video calling on TVs via AI-enabled focus and zoom features.
• Samsung Health on Smart TVs that connects with a webcam to analyze movements and provide real-time feedback during a workout.
• More realistic gaming thanks to HDR10+, with automated settings for low latency and HDR calibration.

For enterprises, Samsung will launch Tizen for Business. This service supports interactive e-boards in schools, kiosks in malls, and even displays in restaurants, airports and subways. With new management portals, businesses can conduct real-time monitoring and control screens remotely, easily applying settings to multiple devices with one simple touch.

With the Tizen TV Platform Licensing, manufacturers who want to introduce a premium TV platform like Tizen can do so quickly with minimal cost. This enables them to use the Tizen TV presence to promote their products in the Smart TV market, and ultimately, help more consumers enjoy Tizen.

Innovating Across the Galaxy Ecosystem

Samsung provides a user experience that meets the needs of all users and devices. And with an expanding range of device types and form factors, developers have a breadth of opportunities to innovate in new ways.

At SDC21, Samsung introduced the new One UI 4, the latest version of its user interface for mobile devices. One UI 4 will provide new levels of customization to enable users to create an experience and a device that is truly theirs. It combines Samsung’s leading privacy and security features with options for users to personalize permissions so that they are always in control of their data when using a Samsung device.

Samsung demonstrated the possibilities of One UI 4 to developers at the event, particularly for foldable devices such as the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3. Thanks to One UI 4, users will be able to make use of features such as Flex mode and Multi-Active Window, which enable users to enjoy more intuitive and user-friendly experiences that are unique to the foldable form factor. SDC21 also included a Galaxy Watch session that showcased developer tools to help them build new apps in the new watch app ecosystem.

Samsung invites developers and partners on its journey to bring new and secure experiences to life. For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference 2021, please visit developer.samsung.com.

The Challenge is part of the broader Call for Code global program, which invites developers and problem solvers around the world to build and contribute to open source technology projects that address some of the most pressing global issues.

“Our everyday heroes have tirelessly served us throughout the pandemic and we want to make their lives, and the lives of others around the world, easier and productive with new levels of connectivity and insights from technology,” said KC Choi, EVP and Head of Global Mobile B2B Team, Samsung Electronics. “To achieve this, innovation must be open. That’s why we’ve been working closely with IBM as well as our valued developer communities using open source platforms. It’s also why I’m honored to serve as an ‘Eminent Judge’ for this year’s 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge, along with other worldwide leaders in sustainability, business and technology. I look forward to seeing the submissions for both Call for Code challenges come to life.”

Submissions for the Call for Code Honoring Everyday Heroes Challenge must be able to run on a Samsung tablet, smartphone and/or wearable device and make use of one or more IBM open hybrid cloud technologies such as IBM Cloud or IBM Watson. Participants will also have access to Samsung toolkits, as well as data from The Weather Company. The deadline for submissions is November 20^th, with the winner announced on December 9^th. In addition to Samsung technology and a cash prize from IBM, the winner will receive support from both companies to help bring their solution to life to make a real difference for everyday heroes.

“IBM and Samsung have a long history of proven success working together to improve business outcomes for clients and also for social good,” said Bob Lord, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Ecosystems at IBM. “Earlier this year, IBM, Samsung and others worked together to deploy the 2019 Call for Code Global Challenge winning solution, Prometeo. I look forward to seeing how developers can use our open technologies now to benefit some of the most deserving people in the world today, our everyday heroes.”

The partnership between Samsung and IBM extends over 30 years, starting with work on semiconductors and now mobility, AI, 5G, Industry 4.0 and networks. At SDC, Samsung and IBM Consulting are announcing a collaboration to modernize hybrid work environments with mobile experiences optimized for the Galaxy Z Fold3, co-designed with major financial services institutions.

Additionally, to accelerate the convergence of Industry 4.0 between cloud-native applications and mobility, IBM and Samsung are researching ways to bring containerized AI workloads to Samsung Android devices with IBM Edge Application Manager. This effort focuses on using containers on Samsung devices to enable workloads to be flexibly deployed, managed and processed across premises such as factories, retail stores, warehouses, hotels and distribution centers to help drive faster development of powerful new use cases for mobile and edge computing.

Samsung and IBM continue to work together to create services that enable businesses and enterprise developers to take full advantage of cutting-edge networks, mobility and analytics.

The Call for Code Honoring Everyday Heroes Challenge starts now. Information on eligibility and how to register is available here: ibm.biz/CallforCode-Samsung.

About IBM
IBM is the global leader in hybrid cloud and AI, serving clients in more than 170 countries. More than 3,200 clients use our hybrid cloud platform to accelerate their digital transformation journeys and, in total, more than 30,000 of them have turned to IBM to unlock value from their data — this client list includes nine out of ten of the world’s largest banks. With this foundation, we continue to leverage Red Hat OpenShift as the leading platform to address our clients’ business needs: A hybrid cloud platform that is open, flexible and secure. Guided by principles of trust, transparency and support for a more inclusive society, IBM also is committed to being a responsible steward of technology and a force for good in the world. For more information, visit: www.ibm.com.

Voice Recognition With Bixby: More Convenient Than Touch

Artificial intelligence (AI) enhances the performance of all kinds of devices essential to our daily lives, including smartphones, tablets, TVs and more. In particular, AI-powered voice recognition facilitates more seamless interactions between these devices. Principal Engineer Joohwan Kim from the AI ​​Client Development Group, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, shares below how the Bixby voice assistant platform is set to enable more convenient experiences – using just your voice.

Q: What does the newly updated Bixby voice assistant platform look like?

Bixby aims to be the best voice interface able to control multiple Samsung devices using only a small amount of data. From this standpoint, we focused on providing a unique user experience that only Galaxy can provide when developing Samsung’s latest devices. For example, Galaxy Z Flip3 provides a Bixby function that allows users to utilize the Cover Screen, and Galaxy Watch4 series includes hands-free functionality.

Bixby has advanced in many ways as an AI platform, and, in terms of the engine, it supports Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) on-device. Because it processes users’ voices immediately from within the device itself, it is fast and secure in terms of privacy protection. Moreover, the development of Bixby Home Platform further expands the range of supported devices. What used to require multiple voice commands is now possible with only a single command that the device understands and performs accordingly.

Q: What are the areas of possible collaboration with developers around the world for the Bixby Platform?

There are several ways third-party developers can participate in Bixby. They can develop various voice services using Samsung’s AI engine in our smartphones, watches and Family Hub. This service, called a capsule, is provided by the Bixby Developer Center. We have also updated the developer tools to make debugging and natural language learning easier, and to allow convenient use of various UI components, all of which will be presented at SDC21.

The update being announced will make it possible to use for developers to harness multiple contexts when adding devices. Smarter device control has been made possible by Bixby Home Platform, an intelligent layer which sits between Bixby Voice – which provides natural language understanding and issues commands – and SmartThings’ Internet of Things (IoT) layer – which provides connection and operation between devices. Commands that previously had to be made individually for separate devices can now be more efficiently undertaken using the Bixby Home Platform. We are introducing this tool at SDC21 and currently working on providing it to third-party developers in the future.

Enjoy More of the Content You Love: Samsung Smart TV’s Tizen

In the past, TVs were evaluated only on their resolution and design, but given changing lifestyles and user demands, the kind of content a TV is able to provide has become paramount. Thanks to the Tizen platform, Samsung’s Smart TVs are able to provide users with a wide range of content able to suit any taste. Ju-hyun Choi, a Staff Engineer at the Software Development Group, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, describes below how Tizen has evolved to provide partners with the optimal environment in which they can develop with wide compatibility and stability.

Q: What are the new functions of Tizen Web Platform for Samsung Smart TV?

Through a powerful web standard technology called WebAssembly, high-performance web apps can now be developed on Samsung Smart TVs. For SDC21, we have prepared an upgrade plan that allows for the installation of the very latest web features for previously-released Smart TVs.

Q: The competitive edge held by Tizen-based display products has been strengthened thanks to the cooperation of partners from various fields. What are your future collaboration plans?

We are currently working on web-based cloud games, with the goal of allowing users to play the latest games on their Samsung Smart TV equipped with the Tizen platform – all without the latest consoles or expensive graphic cards. In order to achieve this, we are working closely with our current service partners. The Tizen platform, an open source-based operating system (OS), is open to everyone and we are working to provide the best possible development environment to developers that features a wide range of compatibility and development tools.

A Must for Innovative User Experiences: On-Device Personalized Neural Networks

Recently, on-device AI technology has been garnering attention. In the past, a high-performance cloud server capable of performing complex calculations was required in order to run AI-based apps, but when the neural network used in AI apps runs within the device, many advantages for users emerge. Jihoon Lee, an Engineer at the On-Device Lab at Samsung Research, explains below the role of on-device AI and cooperation with developers.

Q: On-device AI is considered a must for powerful and innovative consumer experiences. What kind of benefits will users enjoy from using it?

The biggest advantage offered by on-device AI is that the privacy of the users is maintained since all processing occurs on-device. Developers, too, will be able to provide services that are that much closer to the users, while also free from privacy concerns. For example, a camera app that harnesses facial recognition will not share sensitive data with a server if the AI is run on-device.

Another advantage is that on-device AI models can be used without an Internet connection or any mobile data consumption. For example, if a certain on-device AI model is required to be on constant low-power standby, the necessity of an Internet connection or data consumption could be a big limitation. With on-device AI, user application experiences are improved since there is no need to send data to a server and wait for results – resulting in reduced response times.

Thirdly, one is able to create custom AI directly on their device. Previously, the concept of personalizing the already-deployed AI firsthand was unexplored, as there was no framework to help train a deep-learning model on-device. Moving forward, we expect that NNTrainer, which we are presenting at SDC21, will play a big role in better recognizing a user’s face, their accent and even their pets to automatically create photo albums based on their furry friends – and more.

Q: In the future, what kind of synergies can be expected in this field through cooperation with the developers present at SDC?

Ultimately, we hope to bring users closer to AI through on-device training and personalization. We look forward to developers who attend SDC21’s sessions recognizing and utilizing NNTrainer in order to provide AI that is closer to users. Following such collaboration, NNTrainer, currently in its initial stages will become an even more mature framework. Since it is being developed as an open source, anyone can search for it and contribute directly.

Developing Watch Apps for Wear OS Powered by Samsung

Won-Hee Seo, a Staff Engineer at the Strategic Partner R&D Group, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, below introduces the new developer tools and benefits of creating watch apps for the Wear OS Powered by Samsung platform, running on the Galaxy Watch4 series.

Q: It’s now easier to develop a great watch app for the Wear OS ecosystem. What are some new helpful experiences that will be available to users?

With the Galaxy Watch4 series, the most loved and used watch apps and services have been optimized for the new Wear OS Powered by Samsung platform. In addition to Samsung and Google services and apps such as Google Maps and YouTube Music, users will also have access to their favorite watch apps available for download in the Google Play Store. In particular, health-related apps, including Sleep Cycle, are starting to launch and are growing in popularity.

Many developer partners have started to work with the new tools available for the Wear OS platform, which has led to the release of many useful apps.

Moreover, we have launched Watch Face Studio, a new developer tool that makes it easy to design watch faces. Thanks to this tool, designers and developers will be able to create more watch faces, which provides users with a greater variety of watch faces to choose from, helping them to further personalize their watch with their own tastes.

Q: Throughout this session, you discussed the development of new watch apps with other developers. What was at the center of the discussion?

A total of four watch-related sessions were arranged for SDC21: one Highlight Session and three Tech Talk Sessions. They provide all the necessary information for developers, such as the developer guide, in order to help them more easily create diverse watch apps and services. In order to help stimulate the watch face market, a session was also added to SDC21 to provide a detailed introduction to the Watch Face Studio tool that is set to allow designers and developers to easily design and create faces.

Unveiled earlier this year, Matter is an industry-changing connectivity standard created by more than 180 companies and is transforming the smart home industry. Matter aims to become the de-facto standard in every home, that offers consumers interoperability between devices, flexibility and more choices when purchasing connected home devices. As an initial founding member, SmartThings is one of the most flexible platforms able to work with multiple protocols including, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and now, Matter, enabling consumers with existing smart homes to seamlessly integrate new devices into their homes. In addition, Matter opens a brand new chapter of innovation for developers around the globe, allowing more time to focus on creativity while reducing time spent on replicating efforts across various ecosystems.

“We truly believe that Matter is the foundation and future of IoT, and we are thrilled that Samsung SmartThings will be embedding it into so many products accelerating smart home adoption and bringing users more convenient connected home experiences wherever they are,” said Michelle Mindala-Freeman, Head of Marketing for the Connectivity Standards Alliance.

“Samsung TVs, appliances and Galaxy devices are part of everyday life for millions of people around the world and integrating SmartThings hub functionality into these devices will make it easier for users to experience connected living without additional hardware purchase. On top of that, adding Matter support into the SmartThings platform will only broaden the choices of devices to connect as Matter-enabled devices flood into the market next year,” said Jaeyeon Jung, Corporate Vice President at Samsung Electronics and Head of SmartThings. “Matter will help drive a surge in smart home adoption, and with SmartThings, it will be easier for users to gain smart home experiences with seamless device onboarding, customized automation and a choice of voice assistants. We’re proud to have been leading this standardization initiative since its inception, alongside other industry leaders in an effort to bring the Matter protocol to life.”

Matter-enabled devices will join numerous products and brands already available within SmartThings’ vast ecosystem, including devices from Google, eve Systems, Honeywell Home by Resideo, Linksys, Nanoleaf, Philips Hue, Schlage, Wemo, Yale and more.

Historically, the connected home has been very fragmented and SmartThings has been the glue that connects devices together across brands and platforms. SmartThings’ open platform brings together devices, developers and services to offer one of the largest integrated ecosystems. With hundreds of certified brands and millions of users on the platform, SmartThings facilitates innovations in connected living across multiple use cases.

Samsung will bring Matter to multiple products in 2022 as the new standard becomes available and fully integrates into the SmartThings platform.

For more information about SmartThings, please visit www.smartthings.com.

¹ Matter support available on select models.

About SmartThings
SmartThings is the premier technology enabling connected living and driving the future of IoT. Its open platform already supports thousands of devices across hundreds of brands and offers endless possibilities to innovators and developers seeking seamless connectivity in a vast IoT ecosystem. The company is committed to bringing smart functionality and capabilities everywhere consumers want to be, while enhancing the user experience. There are currently millions of people in more than 200 countries accessing SmartThings technology daily to create automations and control facets of their smart homes via the SmartThings App and through a range of Samsung products such as phones, TVs, and digital appliances. SmartThings offers the most flexible amount of protocols, including the new IoT standard, Matter. Launched in 2012, SmartThings is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and is a founding board member of Connectivity Standards Alliance, an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open, global standards for the IoT. For more information, please visit www.smartthings.com.

At SDC21, the company plans to share its latest updates in software, services and platforms with thousands of developers and creators to enable smarter, more seamless connectivity across devices. The attendees will be able to discover opportunities to create cutting-edge solutions for millions, leveraging Samsung’s expansive ecosystem.

DJ Koh, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics’ IT and Mobile Communications Business Division, will open SDC21 by addressing which direction Samsung’s strategy would head to bring innovation to consumer experience.

The following keynote speakers are lined up to discuss Samsung’s strategies for platforms and ecosystems with topics ranging from security, privacy to various platforms including Bixby, SmartThings and Tizen:

• Daniel Ahn, Senior Vice President, Mobile Platform Center
• Samantha Osborne, Vice President, SmartThings Inc.
• Jeongsook Lee, Vice President, Customer Experience Office
• Yongjae Kim, Senior Vice President, Visual Display Software R&D
• Bill Mandel, Vice President, Visual Solution Lab, Samsung Research America
• Janghyun Yoon, Executive Vice President, Mobile Software R&D

SDC21’s highlight sessions consist of three groups. The first one, Platforms Designed For Connected Experiences will explore Bixby and SmartThings’ cross-device experience and how Samsung plans to make the vision of the future Smart Home a reality.

The second session Innovating Mobile Experience Across Samsung Galaxy Ecosystem will take a look at the One UI 4’s innovations and foldable device design process to help developers optimize their own apps for a growing number of foldable devices.

The third session, The Evolution of Tizen and Innovative Screen Experiences will peer into Samsung’s new Smart TV services and how its ecosystem has enhanced with Tizen 6.5.

Furthermore, developers who want to keep abreast of industry insights and state-of-the-art technology will find Tech Talk sessions from Samsung’s top experts very helpful. For those interested in the latest Samsung technology, it is highly recommended to visit SDC21’s Digital Tech Hub, a digital exhibition of the Samsung technology with easily accessible resources.

Code Lab will offer an opportunity for developers to boost their skills with a hands-on coding experience with sample applications for testing simple scenarios. Developers can even try their codes on cutting-edge devices like Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Filp3 via remote access.

In recognition of content developers for excellence in design, innovation, quality and performance, the winners of the 2021 Best of Galaxy Store Awards will be announced in SDC21.

The developers and even end-customers will have the chance to win a Galaxy Z Flip3 by participating in digital badge collection on the SDC21 website. By watching sessions and participating in Code Lab and Hacker’s Playground as well as social media events like #mySDCstack and securing five or more digital badges, participants will earn the chance to win a Galaxy Z Flip3.

The SDC21 will be broadcast on Samsung Newsroom and the SDC website on October 26, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. For more information about the SDC21, please visit https://developer.samsung.com/sdc. Further information can also be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and Facebook (@samsungdev) with the hashtag #SDC21.

From the Bixby and the SmartThings SDK (Software Development Kit), One UI, Smart TV services and the Infinity Flex Display, SDC has become known for unveiling innovations that empower developers and creators to build the software and services of tomorrow.

Kicking off on October 26, this year’s SDC will be the first to be held entirely online. Check out the video below for a taste of what Samsung’s cooking up for SDC21. And don’t forget to keep an eye on Samsung Newsroom and the SDC website for more details about the exciting event.

At Samsung, we work to create meaningful innovation in the world, and business drives progress. We build advanced tools and technology solutions to guide digital transformation within companies, industries and the world. We’re able to do this because of our extensive suite of mobile devices and solutions and collaborative partnerships.

“In fact, we believe our open and collaborative approach will set new standards and accelerate innovations that prioritize productivity, security and mobility.” said Edward Choi, Corporate VP Global Strategic Alliances, Samsung Electronics. It is crucial to break down technology barriers, create opportunities and enhance mobility for the new mobile workforce.

This led us to create a streamlined mobile work experience through Samsung DeX, the ultimate mobile productivity solution ushering the future of work for business and consumers alike. Samsung DeX and our global partner networking are ushering a bold new future and enriching the enterprise ecosystem.

At the 2019 Samsung Developer Conference, we featured key partners who we’re working with to provide optimal productivity experience by unlocking new capabilities and use cases for our enterprise customers. With these partnerships, Samsung is leading a new era of connectivity and collaboration for businesses.

Microsoft

Microsoft and Samsung strive to provide professionals with leading technology to work from anywhere, and at any time, by integrating the best of the companies’ hardware, software, solutions and services. Together, Microsoft 365 on Windows Virtual Desktop and Samsung innovative mobile technologies enable users to have a great virtual desktop experience wherever they are.

Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop and Samsung DeX enable a full screen Microsoft 365 experience from Samsung DeX-enabled mobile devices through Windows Virtual Desktop on an Android endpoint – enabling workers to be even more productive, no matter where they go.

Samsung DeX provides a desktop-like experience entirely powered by a Samsung Galaxy device¹. Using a mobile device and connected screen, Samsung DeX allows users to seamlessly switch from one application to another. You can use Android applications on the mobile device while working on Windows apps delivered from Azure on a connected monitor.

Additionally, the new Galaxy Book was designed on the Microsoft Windows 10 platform with the mobile enterprise customer in mind.

“Samsung and Microsoft share a commitment to open collaboration and are continually looking for new ways to deliver the best productivity experiences across devices, applications and services,” said Rob Howard, Senior Director, Microsoft. “Samsung DeX and Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop allow for innovative smartphone and PC capabilities and experiences across the Galaxy and Windows ecosystems, unlocking new scenarios for enterprises and end users.”

Cisco

Samsung and Cisco are working together to enable an intelligent and unified experience of Webex solutions across Samsung mobile devices.

This alliance was founded with the goal to make it easier for personal and business users to collaborate with each other. Together, Cisco and Samsung created the best Wi-Fi 6 experience. Through joint engineering efforts and field trials, we developed technology optimized for app developers and mobile users. Earlier this year, we launched the Samsung Galaxy S10 as the first Wi-Fi 6 enabled mobile device. Wi-Fi 6, the next -generation of Wi-Fi network technology, not only provides faster network speeds, its increased network capabilities combined with 5G will create a seamless and hyper-connected experience for the future of business.

Cisco Webex is leveraging Samsung DeX and our Wi-Fi 6 partnership to enable customers, whether they are on the go or in the office, to intelligently collaborate, all from within one single app.

“Our unified and integrated Webex Platform are making it easy for customers to collaborate, regardless of device or location,” said Abhay Kulkarni, VP and General Manager, Webex Meetings. “We’re excited to provide a secure, unified and cognitive experience across calling, messaging and meeting on Samsung mobile devices; enabling the best experiences for our joint customers across the globe.”

Thanks to our partnerships with Microsoft and Cisco, enterprises can create new and unexpected ways of working with Samsung. We’re excited about these and other exciting ways we’re shaping the future of work through collaboration and mobile innovations.

¹ Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, S9, S9+, S10 series, and Note 8, Note 9, Note 10, Fold and Tab S4, Tab S5e, Tab S6, A90 5G (https://developer.samsung.com/samsung-dex/how-it-works)

As part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring that its technologies are accessible to all users, on October 29 at SDC19, Samsung Electronics unveiled One UI 2. The latest version of Samsung’s signature UI includes an array of advanced audiovisual functions that make it easy for any user to get the most out of their Galaxy device.

Improving Visibility for Everyone

When it comes to core accessibility functions like high-contrast features, user demand is resoundingly clear.

Samsung’s high-contrast theme, which helps people with low vision see their smartphone more clearly, has so far recorded more than 15 million downloads. To make users’ displays more accommodating to their eyes, Samsung has introduced, among other features, options to 1) adjust the screen’s color settings, which enhances visibility for users who have difficulty seeing certain hues, and 2) utilize a high-contrast keyboard featuring colors that make keys really stand out.

Another way that One UI 2 offers users with low vision a helping hand is by visualizing Bixby’s dictation function. This convenient feature allows users to, for instance, easily send messages to friends by simply telling Bixby what they’d like to type. Users can also use their voice to make notes and save ideas in the Samsung Notes app.

Having visual impairment can also make it difficult to sense when lights have been turned on around you. Galaxy devices’ unique Light Sensing feature addresses this difficulty by detecting the status of nearby lights and informing the user through vibration. Users may then decide whether they’d like to turn the lights on or leave them off.

Enhancements to Help All Users Communicate Better

Samsung believes that a smartphone cannot truly be called a smartphone if it doesn’t allow users to make the most of its call function. In One UI 2, users will now be able to enjoy an improved experience when engaging in phone conversations, even in places with lots of background noise.

One UI 2 also comes with the Live Transcribe feature. This feature will automatically put spoken words into a text form on the screen that live updates so users can follow along with a conversation straight from the palm of their hand.

Furthermore, users of Galaxy Note devices can harness the convenience of Screen Off memo and other S Pen features to quickly and easily write down what they wish to communicate in situations where the need arises.

Where Accessibility Meets AI

Since the launch of its artificial intelligence (AI) platform Bixby, Samsung has been working to provide wider accessibility to its products and services for all users. As these AI technologies develop, so too will the range of accessibility capabilities offered across all Samsung devices and services.

When it was first introduced, Bixby was envisaged as an assistant for general smartphone users to enhance their experiences. As the service developed, it became of use particularly to the elderly, and to children who did not have a strong understanding of how Samsung’s products and services operated.

Samsung is committed to bringing more AI features to its technologies and devices in the future. Thanks to users’ continuous usage of these accessibility features, Samsung has developed a better understanding of how they should be enhanced. This means that more advanced customization options will soon become available.

“When developing One UI 2, we considered accessibility to be the most important element in the development process,” noted Eui-Suk Chung, Executive Vice President and Head of Software and Artificial Intelligence at Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business. “This is our philosophy regarding accessibility here at Samsung.”

Chung is determined of the value accessible products and services will have in the future. “If we take care to implement accessibility into our products thoroughly, many more people will be able to use our products and services comfortably,” Chung explained. “Better accessibility will improve the user experience not only for those with impairments, but also for the youngest and eldest members of our society. It can also benefit users in general when they are driving, cooking, or simply want more comfort.”

“I hope that the enhancements we have made to our accessibility features in One UI 2 are valuable to those whom they can help,” Chung continued. “It may not seem like a lot to people would require assistance in this way, but we know these functions can be essential for those who need them. Accessibility should no longer be considered as something extra – it should be at the core of all development, technological and otherwise.”

For more information about the Samsung Mobile Accessibility, please visit here.

DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics today announced, at the Samsung Developer Conference 2019 (SDC19), new ways its platforms will enable developers to introduce simpler, more powerful experiences to consumers around the world. Samsung shared its vision for the next era of mobile and connected living, offering inspiration to developers, enterprise leaders, and consumers through innovative experiences with the devices they rely on every day.

“We are fortunate to work with the world’s best developers and designers. Together, we have built an extensive and secure ecosystem of devices and services,” said DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “We continue to make progress toward our vision to be the innovator of new mobile experiences that flow seamlessly and continuously wherever we go.”

Creating Opportunities for Developers through Open, Scalable AI and IoT Platforms

ES Chung, EVP and Head of Software and AI, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, outlines plans to enrich Bixby to offer users “countless new ways to integrate intelligence into everything you do.”

To help consumers discover new ways Bixby can work with them to get things done more quickly and easily, Samsung launched Bixby Marketplace earlier this year, creating a way for developers to introduce their Bixby capsules to millions of Bixby users. In the past six months, the size of the Bixby developer community has doubled. And starting in 2020, the Bixby Marketplace will expand gradually, enabling developers to offer their services across more Samsung devices.

To make it easier for developers to create new experiences on its AI platform and ensure consumers have more intuitive experience, Samsung announced enhanced capabilities in the Bixby Developer Studio at SDC19.

• New Bixby Templates makes it easy for developers to create capsules using pre-existing forms so that they don’t have to start from scratch.
• Enhanced Bixby Views enable developers to build capsules with a consistent design even beyond smartphones—to televisions, tablets, smart watches and refrigerators.
• Developers can now register their capsules under Natural Language Categories. When users ask Bixby for help related to a category—such as radio, news, or navigation—Bixby suggests a capsule that can help them get what they need more quickly and easily, even without having to call out exact name of the capsule.

Larry Heck, CEO of Viv Labs, Samsung Electronics, introduces new Natural Language Categories, which simplify how users engage with and discover Bixby capsules.

More consumers than ever are seeing how seamlessly connected devices and services can make everyday life easier. Developers can scale their device and service offerings through Samsung’s IoT platform, SmartThings. Already, developers and partners have brought connected experiences to more than 45 million monthly active users and thousands of compatible devices, and the platform is expected to grow further with the Work as a SmartThings Hub (WASH) program, which allows partners like network operators to embed SmartThings Hub software into their devices.

To help developers build on and integrate existing devices with the SmartThings platform, Samsung announced new capabilities for developers:

• The new Rules API brings to life more automated smart home experiences to reflect individual daily routines across a broad range of SmartThings devices.
• Samsung is launching the SmartThings Device SDK Beta program in early 2020 to enable more third-party manufacturers to create SmartThings-compatible devices.

Samsung continues to invite developers to actively participate in its ecosystem and supports the developer community with several incentive programs—including the Best of Galaxy Store Award, the Samsung Mobile Design Competition, Bixby DevJam and the Samsung Mobile Security Reward program.

Inspiring Developers with New Experiences Across Devices

Samsung continued to refine the mobile experience to allow users to focus on what matters most to them. One UI 2 includes new features that declutter the user interface—making it easier for people to interact naturally, while also making it easier on their eyes. And now, to make both the developer and the user experiences consistent across devices, Samsung is expanding the use of One UI 2 beyond smartphones to tablets, wearables, and new form factors, including foldables.

Sally Hyesoon Jeong, VP and Head of Framework R&D Group, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, introduces an all-new, compact form factor for foldable devices.

With the launch of Galaxy Fold, Samsung designed a first-of-its kind mobile experience that is much more than a foldable device. Samsung, alongside hundreds of developers and partners, created an entire foldable ecosystem that continues grow and opens up new possibilities to the mobile experience. As promised at SDC last year, Samsung will continue to explore a range of new form factors in the foldable category. And at SDC19, Samsung invited developers and users alike to join the exploration of exciting new use cases and user experiences.

To deliver the best possible TV viewing experience, Samsung is also investing in 8K technologies. With AI ScaleNet, Samsung has made it possible to stream high-quality 8K videos on networks with lower bandwidth capabilities. Samsung has also announced new tools that make it easier for developers to bring new experiences across the nearly 100 million Smart TVs that are powered by Tizen.

• Wits automatically uploads a code edit to the TV, so developers can see their update almost immediately, significantly trimming development time.
• EasyST makes testing content playback much easier because developers don’t need to build their own test app to make sure their content is streaming as intended.
• TIFA (Tizen Identifier for Advertising) gives consumers the option to limit ad tracking or opt-out of targeted advertising
• Samsung is making Tizen TV OS available to third-party TV makers for the first time.

End-to-End Security Built in Every Solution and Experience

Terry Halvorsen, CIO and EVP, IT of Mobile Communications B2G Business, Samsung Electronics, discusses the importance of stout security solutions like Samsung Knox – particularly in today’s hyperconnected world.

Emerging technologies, such as IoT, AI and 5G, are bringing new capabilities and opportunities to the developer landscape. For Samsung, it means providing the community with the tools and programs necessary to deliver secure and reliable solutions.

Secure Development Lifecycle delivers systematic reviews at every phase of the development, supply chain, and manufacturing process. To give both developers and users peace of mind, Samsung offers the Knox SDK, allowing partners and app developers to integrate advanced security solutions to their apps and services. In addition, Samsung has been working with German government agencies, especially BSI, and industry partners on developing a mobile-enabled eID for digital services to support customers and governments by developing a solid foundation for trusted identity services.

Seungyun Lee, Principal Engineer, Knox Platform for Enterprise, Samsung Electronics, discusses features that make Samsung Knox attractive to developers. “Knox is software that is built around hardware root of trust, not just implemented after the device is built” Lee explains, “giving it a foundation like no other security system in the market.”

Samsung invites developers and partners on its journey to bring new and secure experiences to life. For more information about working with Samsung and the Samsung Developer Conference 2019, please visit sdc.developer.samsung.com. Further information can also be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and using the hashtag #SDC19.

SDC19’s keynote event was packed with people eager to learn more about Samsung’s latest innovations

About Samsung Developer Conference
SDC brings together thousands of developers and creators to explore today’s tech and visualize what’s possible in the future. The two-day conference will feature exciting keynote announcements, technical sessions and valuable networking time. Plus, Samsung product teams and technology partners will showcase the latest tech advances and tools.

* All services and programs mentioned above may vary by region.

Since that announcement, Bixby has expanded to a variety of products, including smartphones, wearables, tablets, smart TVs, Family Hub refrigerators and more, as well as SmartThings-connected devices. Over the last year, Samsung has opened the door for developers to create their own Bixby capsules with the introduction of the Bixby Developer Studio, and made it easy for users to download those services with the launch of the Bixby Marketplace in June.

The tools and enhancements introduced at SDC19 will make developing capsules easier, and offer developers opportunities to reach an expansive user base across Samsung’s device portfolio. For example, with the Bixby Developer Studio’s new Bixby Templates, rather than building a capsule’s code and model manually from scratch, developers can simply choose from a variety of templates designed to handle many situations – including offering a fact of the day or quiz, telling jokes, or playing a podcast.

Not only are capsules easier to create, they’re also quick and easy to find thanks to new Natural Language Categories. This means that now, when developers register their capsules under specific categories, if a user makes a request, Bixby will be able to search and suggest related capsules that fall under that category. It also means that users can call up capsules using natural language, rather than invoking the capsule’s specific name. This not only offers users a more convenient experience, it also makes it easier for developers’ capsules to be discovered and used.

To kickstart the creation of more capsules, the Bixby Developer Studio includes a new Bixby Views function, which enables developers to create capsules that feature consistent user interface designs across Bixby-enabled smartphones, TVs, tablets, smartwatches, refrigerators and more. Samsung has also announced that beginning in 2020, the Bixby Marketplace will expand to devices beyond smartphones. Interested developers can get a head start on developing for upcoming Bixby-enabled devices by using Bixby Views to start building seamless multi-device experiences.

In addition to hosting SDC, throughout the year, Samsung organizes workshops and sessions at locations around the world that offer developers valuable opportunities to hone their skills, gain exposure, and win prizes. Included among these are the Bixby DevJam competition and the Bixby Premier Developer Program. The former offers developers prizes for exceptionally innovative capsule creations, while the latter offers them first-class technical support, devices for testing and iterating capsules, and Bixby Marketplace exposure.

Check out the infographic below to trace Bixby’s incredible journey, and discover how the platform is helping developers add useful and personalized intelligence to more services and devices.

In less than a week, thousands of individuals from around the world will gather in San Jose, California to take part in the sixth annual Samsung Developer Conference (SDC). Held from October 29–30 at the San Jose Convention Center, this year’s showcase of the latest trends in tech will offer creators and developers an opportunity to get to know Samsung innovations that will allow them to take consumers’ AI and IoT experiences to the next level.

A wide variety of sessions – led by Samsung and tech industry leaders – will offer attendees a first look at the company’s latest SDKs and dev tools, as well as exclusive previews of cutting-edge advancements in the fields of AI, 5G, secure solutions and more.

Read on for our roundup of SDC19 sessions that attendees won’t want to miss.

Bixby

SDC19 features a variety of sessions that showcase just how easy it is to develop seamless device experiences using Samsung’s open AI platform, Bixby. Included among these are:

• Game Changing Voice Assistant: Industry Perspectives
  Listen to industry leaders and premier developers share their experiences developing Bixby Capsules and scaling their services for the Bixby experience. Speakers will discuss the platform’s ability to drive business growth, and outline their vision for the future of intelligent voice assistants.

• Building Bixby Conversational Experiences for Devices with and without Screens
  This session will explore how Bixby behaves across devices both with and without screens, and discuss how to provide the best user experience for multiple devices. Learn from the best Bixby engineers in the world how to account for the many interfaces you’ll encounter in the Bixby device ecosystem.

• Bixby Developer Center and Marketplace
  Learn how to configure and submit Bixby Capsules for launch in the Bixby Marketplace, and how to set up teams for seamless collaboration. Plus, gain insight and access to Samsung’s exclusive Bixby Premier Developer Program.

5G

The 5G era is officially upon us, and at SDC19, Samsung is spotlighting some of the incredible opportunities that 5G connectivity offers businesses and developers. Those in attendance should be sure to check out:

• Unleashing Business with 5G Solutions
  This session offers valuable insights into how 5G will transform enterprises and businesses. Beyond the increase in speed, 5G will remove a wide range of existing limitations. Speakers will discuss 5G’s impact on key industries, offer predictions for the future, and share how developers can use these insights to identify new opportunities for B2B app development.

• Making 5G Wireless Technology a Reality and Initiatives Towards 6G
  The 5G platform is expected to play a critical role in connecting devices not just in the home, but across a wide range of industries. This session will explore Samsung’s 5G leadership, chart 5G’s evolution, and outline Samsung’s vision for the next generation of wireless technology: 6G.

Security

SDC19 features several sessions that underscore Samsung’s commitment to providing comprehensive security. Notable sessions include:

• Is Your Code Secure? Automatic Security Analysis Tools and Systems
  This session will introduce Samsung’s automatic analysis tools and systems for detecting security vulnerabilities and weaknesses in developed software. Discover how Samsung utilizes these tools, and learn how to make your code more secure.

• Samsung Blockchain Is Open for Partnerships
  Samsung believes in an open environment and embraces the idea that a decentralized world will revolutionize how we interact, work and play. This engaging session will outline the company’s approach to blockchain technology, and examine its efforts to further this revolution through collaboration with developers.

Enterprise Solutions

In addition to serving as a platform for partners and developers to unlock exciting business opportunities, SDC19 will showcase Samsung collaborations that are redefining what’s possible for enterprises. Notable sessions include:

• How AI Can Improve Operational Effectiveness, Safety and Wellbeing
  IBM and Samsung are expanding a decades-long partnership. This session will discuss the companies’ shared objective – to bring their combined innovation capabilities from the lab to your daily life – and showcase examples of this reinforced cooperation.

• Knox Partner Program and Knox Dev Tools
  This session will introduce the mobile enterprise-focused Knox Partner Program, which places a wide range of valuable resources and B2B dev tools – including EMM, Mobile Threat Detection, Remote Control and Secure Voice – at developers’ fingertips.

IoT (the Internet of Things)

This year at SDC, Samsung will introduce enhancements to its open IoT platform, SmartThings, that will enable partners and developers to enrich people’s lives with better connected living experiences. Highlighted sessions include:

• IoT 2.0: The Next Phase of IoT Engagement and Growth
  Learn more about SmartThings, its services and devices, and Samsung’s plans for the platform going forward. Find out how to join the SmartThings ecosystem, and how Samsung improved the platform to help partners and developers grow their businesses.

• Digital Marketing and e-Commerce Development for Smart Appliances
  Whether it’s e-commerce or digital content, developers are leveraging IoT and emerging technology to drive innovation and offer consumers additional convenience. Find out how partners are working hand-in-hand with Samsung to make this happen through collaborative development.

And Much More

All in all, SDC19 features more than 90 sessions covering a wide range of important subjects – including, in addition to those listed above, topics like developing apps for foldable devices, 8K content streaming, and Samsung’s One UI. Notable sessions include:

• More Than Foldables: Android Apps for Foldables and Larger Screens
  Android apps are now available on more than just single and small screens. Consumers are increasingly demanding versatility in screens, and this broadening device landscape is fueling a shift toward more immersive and productive usage. This interactive session will offer insights from Samsung, Google, VSCO and top developers on how to make your applications work well across multiple form factors, including foldables, tablets and desktops. Listen to experts share best practices on improving the user experience, expanding your audience, and increasing engagement across screens and devices.

• One UI : Designed for Everyday Simplicity
  Since introducing One UI at SDC18, Samsung has been hard at work refining its signature mobile software in ways that enhance users’ daily lives. Join this session for a deep dive into One UI 2’s design principles and visual language, and examine Samsung’s vision as well as its progress toward creating a single, unified user experience.

• 8K Streaming, Low-Latency Livestreaming, and AI Streaming
  This session will discuss Samsung’s collaborations with various content and service providers on 8K streaming services. Discover how to integrate 8K streaming support into new and existing apps, and learn how Samsung’s neural network-based AI streaming technology intelligently scales images and videos in order to dramatically improve image quality and enable users to enjoy more 8K content.

More details on these and other SDC19 sessions may be found here. And don’t forget to follow @samsung_dev on Twitter and keep an eye on the hashtag #SDC19 for the latest news and updates from San Jose.

Samsung Electronics announced its keynote speakers for the Samsung Developer Conference 2019 (SDC19). The annual conference brings together thousands of developers and creators to learn about the latest development tools and explore new technologies that drive forward next-generation experiences.

Thanks to Samsung’s continuing commitment to open ecosystems, technology leaders are empowered to collaborate with Samsung to bring more convenience, productivity and fun to everyday life for consumers and enterprise customers around the world. Partners work together in the spirit of open innovation to build new, powerful, and unique experiences on Samsung platforms—making it possible for people to do things they couldn’t do before.

DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, will open SDC19 by sharing Samsung’s vision for the future and how the company is delivering on it through continuous innovation. “Samsung has built an open ecosystem of technologies and solutions to enable mobile innovation without barriers or limits,” said DJ Koh. “There has never been a more exciting time to pioneer the next generation of mobile experiences – but it will require open collaboration with partners who also believe in the possibilities of boundless innovation. We look forward to working with the developer community to re-imagine the way we experience the world and to continue pushing the limits of today’s technology together.”

Among the full lineup of mainstage speakers, SDC19 will feature keynotes and spotlight sessions from Samsung executives at the forefront of next generation technologies:

Eui-Suk Chung, EVP and Head of Software and AI, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, will share updates to Bixby’s progress and showcase Samsung’s mission to build seamless and transcendent user experiences, including more opportunities with Bixby Marketplace. Larry Heck, CEO of Viv Labs, and Adam Cheyer, CTO of Viv labs, will walk through the new and updated Bixby tools that will help developers bring their solutions to life, and demonstrate how much faster and easier it is to create Bixby Capsules using the latest version of Bixby Developer Studio.

Jaeyeon Jung, VP and Head of Service Security Technologies Group, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, will share Samsung’s vision for connected living, and the progress SmartThings has made in making it a reality. She will also showcase Samsung’s commitment to collaboration and openness, and will introduce enhanced developer tools for creating richer IoT experiences.

Terry Halvorsen, CIO and EVP of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, will be joined onstage by Samsung’s Principal Engineer on the B2B Service Team, Seungyun Lee. Together, they will address the importance of security in today’s hyper-connected world, and how developers can benefit from new technologies incorporated into Samsung Knox, which is setting the bar for security.

Sang Kim, VP of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, will highlight how, as the global leader in Smart TVs, the company is constantly innovating to introduce new capabilities, and along with them, developer-friendly tools that enable partners to build, grow, and extend business opportunities. In addition to introducing new tools, he will share how the company is building and expanding the Tizen ecosystem.

Sally Jeong, VP and Head of Framework R&D Group, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, will share the improvements integrated into ‘One UI’ and how it’s designed to provide easy-to-use, intuitive experiences for the users across the Galaxy ecosystem. And Hassan Anjum, Head of Product, Mobile Computing, Samsung Electronics America, will highlight Samsung’s vision for mobile computing to provide enhanced portability, connectivity and productivity.

Additionally, Taher Behbehani, SVP and Head of Mobile B2B at Samsung Electronics America, will kick off Day two with a discussion on the opportunities for software innovators, entrepreneurs and enterprises to partner with Samsung. Special guests will join him onstage to demonstrate how enterprise developers are delivering next generation social and business apps and services in rewarding ways. And Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, will follow onstage for a fireside chat on the development and challenges of creating his open source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and share his advice for developers.

SDC19 is set to be one of Samsung’s most inspiring and hands-on events yet, featuring technical sessions by industry leaders and fun networking activities. Attendees will be able to meet with Samsung product teams and partners showcasing the latest technology advancements and tools in areas from AI and IoT, to gaming, 5G and blockchain. More information about sessions will be shared in the coming weeks.

For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference 2019, please visit developer.samsung.com/sdc. Further information can also be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and Facebook (@samsungdev) using the hashtag #SDC19.

To participate in this year’s conference, please visit here.

About Samsung Developer Conference

SDC brings together thousands of developers and creators to explore today’s tech and visualize what’s possible in the future. The two-day conference will feature exciting keynote announcements, technical sessions and valuable networking time. Plus, Samsung product teams and technology partners will showcase the latest tech advances and tools. The event will take place from October 29 – 30, 2019, at the San Jose Convention Center in California, U.S.

During the sessions, Samsung signified the democratization of Bixby, introducing the Bixby Developer Studio: a collection of intuitive tools that allow partners and developers to infuse intelligence into more products and services. To scale services powered by Bixby, developers can now build Bixby Capsules (features or services created for Bixby) and connect them to their existing APIs. The Bixby experience will be further enriched once the Bixby Marketplace officially opens, allowing users to browse through a variety of capsules that developers create and activate them on their devices as they wish.

To learn more about how the company is enriching Bixby by empowering developers to build their own Bixby experiences, Samsung Newsroom spoke to Danny Whang, a Principal Engineer in Samsung Electronics’ AI Strategy Group.

Q. Samsung revealed the “Bixby Developer Studio” at SDC18. How did developers react? What actions is Samsung taking, going forward?

We garnered a lot of attention on the Bixby Developer Studio, as seen by the 4,000+ developers who attended SDC18. Ever since, we’ve established a number of ‘Developer Relations’ departments that serve as touchpoints for developers to connect with our specialized Bixby experts and get answers to any questions that they may have. They’re currently up and running in the U.S., China and Korea, and we’re working on expanding to locations around the world. We’re also organizing more events that will allow us to meet and collaborate with talented developers.

Q. What were some of the steps that Samsung took to transform Bixby into a full-fledged AI platform?

We’ve always thought of Bixby as a platform through which people can use various Bixby services across multiple compatible devices. The first iteration of Bixby was revealed as an intelligent interface that interacts with our mobile devices because we wanted to unveil each function at the appropriate moment.

We also thought long and hard about ways to improve the consumer experience, and make it easier for developers to create dynamic Bixby services. Our goals in releasing these new tools are to help third-party developers build services more comfortably and efficiently, and eventually get more developers to participate in the Bixby ecosystem. This will help develop the Bixby Marketplace, to offer consumers a place where they can easily pick and choose the services they want.

Q. What is Samsung doing to encourage more developers to participate?

We are offering developers access to the same tools that we use to build those services, and this comes in the form of the Bixby Developer Studio. We’ve created this so that developers can create Bixby Capsules more efficiently. With it, developers and AI can work together to make programs – when the developer gives Bixby the building blocks, Bixby uses the developers’ models to learn about users, making it a collaborative process with the AI.

In addition to providing developers with the tools they need to take Bixby’s convenience to the next level, we’re continuously enhancing the platform with more devices, more services, and support for more languages.

Other than that, we are investing more in technologies such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and other technologies in the Audio Intelligence category so that Bixby can understand the natural language better.

Q. You mentioned the Bixby Marketplace. How many Bixby Capsules will need to be ready before the Marketplace opens, and what types of capsules can users expect to find there?

When it comes to the Bixby Marketplace, what really matters isn’t the sheer number of capsules, but the actual quality of the Bixby Capsule selection. The Marketplace will feature a wide range of capsules spanning categories like transportation, music, lifestyle and more, and we’ll need to have enough high-quality capsules ready to fill out those categories.

The more third-party developers jump on board and contribute innovative capsules, the faster the Marketplace will be up and running. When it officially opens, developers will also be able to upload more capsules to the Marketplace. These capsules will utilize Bixby’s natural language understanding to simplify users’ daily lives. Users will be able to easily access every single one of them through the Marketplace.

Q. Is the new Bixby compatible with Samsung’s TVs and appliances as well? Will developers’ Bixby Capsules need to be customized to work on these devices?

Devices that already support Bixby, including our Family Hub and Smart TVs, will also be made compatible with the New Bixby in the near future.

As far as Bixby Capsules are concerned, just because Bixby functions across a variety of devices doesn’t necessarily mean that developers will have to rebuild their capsules to make them compatible with each. Various departments in Samsung are working closely together to make this aspect of the development process as simple as possible.

Each device’s features might be different – the device may or may not have screens or speakers, for example. But for each device, all the developer will have to do is reorganize the layout of the data. These capsules for various devices will be easy to develop, as the tools Samsung provides will include various UI components and simulators that help developers in their processes.

Q. Compared to other intelligent assistants, what are some key benefits that Bixby offers developers and consumers?

Seamlessness, for one. With Bixby, you’re dealing with a single assistant across all kinds of devices—one that’s constantly being optimized to enhance its convenience.

Samsung sells more than 500 million devices a year, creating millions of opportunities for consumers to engage with dynamic Bixby services. We’re committed to expanding the platform to encompass all Samsung devices in the near future, starting with five more languages in the coming months. And with our industry-leading expertise in mobile, display and home innovations, we understand exactly how to create simple and unified multi-device experiences.

Because the platform invites third-party developers to contribute their own services, and encourages users to utilize the services that work for them, each person’s experience is ultimately unique. That inherent aspect of personalization is part of Bixby’s beauty.

Q. Do you have any final words for developers out there who are interested in growing their services with Bixby? What do you see as the future for Bixby?

Because Bixby is an open platform—a platform that will constantly evolve as more and more developers create and contribute innovative capsules—we can’t even imagine what the future will hold. But we’re excited to find out.

With Bixby, you’re looking at a platform that allows your services to truly shine, and offers a means to deliver them to millions of users around the world. We still have areas where we need to improve, and I encourage interested developers to join us on this journey, provide us with constructive feedback, and help us build a more seamless and connected future.

Samsung Electronics has unveiled the initial roster of keynote speakers for Samsung Developer Conference 2018 (SDC18), where thousands of the world’s most prominent developers and creators will come together to explore today’s technology and work towards building the software and services of tomorrow.

DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics, will open SDC18 by discussing Samsung’s vision for the future of technology, and how the company is continually innovating to deliver the best customer experience. “At Samsung, we remain committed to enriching our open hardware, software and services ecosystems, empowering partners and developers to create new, intelligent and unimagined experiences for consumers,” said DJ Koh. “As a part of this commitment, we are excited to announce at SDC18 new developments and tools across AI and IoT that will usher in the next generation of connectivity.”

Among the full lineup of speakers, SDC18 will feature special keynotes from Samsung executives at the forefront of software and services innovation:

Eui-Suk Chung is EVP and Head of Software and AI, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung. A passionate technologist, Eui-Suk will talk about how the company’s ecosystem enables developers to create seamless experiences for consumers. He will also reveal how new tools and capabilities will help developers bring their creative ideas to life and scale them across billions of devices.

Dag Kittlaus, CEO of Viv Labs, will be joined on stage by the company’s CTO, Adam Cheyer. Together, they will outline Samsung’s delivery on its strategy to make Bixby more ubiquitous, personal, natural and open. They will share how Bixby has grown to become a next-generation, intelligent assistant platform, built for developers from the ground up. Lastly, they will unveil new Bixby tools that give developers the ability to infuse intelligence across a full spectrum of Samsung devices.

Jaeyeon Jung is VP and Head of Service Security Technologies Group at Samsung, where she oversees the IoT cloud, identity service, and other security-critical services. During the keynote, Jaeyeon will discuss SmartThings’ progress since the ecosystem integration was announced in 2017, including how it has become more secure, scalable and accessible – revealing how it will continue to expand in 2019.

SDC18 will be jam-packed with learning, inspiration and special activities with Samsung experts, partners and thought leaders at the cutting edge of the world’s most innovative technologies and industries, from AI and IoT to health, AR/VR and security solutions. More enthusiastic spokespeople and industry leaders to join in SDC18 will be shared in coming weeks.

Stay tuned for more exciting speaker announcements in the coming weeks. For more information about Samsung Developer Conference 2018, please visit http://sdc.developer.samsung.com/. Further information can also be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and using the hashtag #SDC18.

To sign-up for this year’s conference, visit http://sdc.developer.samsung.com/registration/ to register for your place.

About Samsung Developer Conference

SDC brings together thousands of developers and creators to explore today’s tech and visualize what’s possible in the future. The two-day conference will feature exciting keynote announcements, technical sessions and valuable networking time. Plus, Samsung product teams and technology partners will showcase the latest tech advances and tools.

The event will take place from November 7 – 8, 2018 in Moscone West in San Francisco, California, U.S.

That’s why we invited young people – from first-graders all the way to college age – to join us last week at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017 in San Francisco. We wanted to showcase some of the educational opportunities that can help children gain true digital literacy, and demonstrate Samsung’s passion for giving young people the future-proof skills they need – not just for the jobs market, but also to express themselves, solve the problems of tomorrow, and “do what you can’t”. Judging by their response, we believe we also inspired many of the developers at SDC 2017 to pass on their own enthusiasm for all things tech, from generation to generation.

Children enjoy a safe and educationally rich digital experience with Kids Mode and Samsung Kids on Galaxy tablets at SDC 2017

For parents, however, there is one must: the first digital experience of their children must happen in a safe but also educationally rich environment, and that’s why we set up the Samsung Kids Experience at SDC. In our interactive zone, we showed off Kids Mode, your children’s first digital – and safe – playground that makes learning easy. Within Kids Mode there are thousands of age-appropriate games, available to help children learn in a fun and interactive way. Kids Mode comes pre-loaded on Galaxy tablets launched from 2016 and available to download for free across 185 countries.  Consistent with the focus on learning in a safe digital environment, at SDC this year we also demonstrated the huge value of a complementary service, Samsung Kids, a US-focused membership program that teaches skills like math, languages, coding and more.

We also gave a flavor of Code Jam, which introduces children aged 5 to 10 to the magic of learning code. And the young kids visiting SDC 2017 just loved Crocro Adventure, a clever education app that teaches children coding through a game that makes them hunt for tasty treats for their Kids Mode characters. Using basic coding concepts to solve problems, Crocro Adventure has been popular ever since it was released with the Galaxy Tab A 2017; the app is now coming to more and more Galaxy devices.

Kids get hands on with Handy Code in a demonstration by staff at SDC 2017

As kids get older, there are plenty of programs that teach them how to code, but most are still stuck in a 20^th century technology environment: the PC. Fact is, the majority of children now live exclusively in a world of mobile computing; they rarely go near a PC. That’s why, at SDC we developed and presented a program called Handy Code: a coding environment for the mobile generation. With Handy Code, kids can learn coding using the tool they’re most familiar with: a smartphone or tablet, and using just their fingers. The feedback from students was clear: with Handy Code, learning to code is much easier – and faster – than they thought it would be.

The Solve for Tomorrow competition at SDC 2017 invited students to showcase solutions and applications they have developed

Teaching 21^st century skills also means to inspire the next generation to learn the STEAM skills – in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics – that modern economies so urgently need. In the US, we run Solve for Tomorrow for children in 6^th to 12th grade, where students learn that technology has a purpose and can tackle very immediate problems. We invited the winners of this year’s Solve for Tomorrow competition to share their achievements with all the developers at SDC 2017, and their exhibition was awesome. Among their innovative solutions was an app developed by students in New York that matched children from poor families that might go hungry with food from restaurants that was still fresh but would otherwise go to waste. A team from Nebraska developed software that helps farmers to use drones for highly targeted delivery of pesticides, which helps to protect both drinking water and the environment; and in Arizona, students developed a system that will save lives by using a clever sensor system that warns drivers when wildlife is near a road, to reduce the number of fatal collisions.

Young attendees at SDC 2017 take part in various workshops and experience Samsung’s latest devices firsthand

Boosting digital literacy has to go all the way to young adulthood and beyond, and that’s why we also invited 50 students from local high schools along with teachers and parents to join our Youth Track at SDC 2017. They had an opportunity to hear the keynotes and participate in a Gear 360 workshop, because it’s with Youth Track that we really hope to inspire young people for a rewarding career as developers and creators.

At SDC 2017, we showed young people that they can do something big with their digital skills, and even join Team Samsung in the future. Showing them the full range of internships and careers that Samsung can offer, we hope to have encouraged them to build their digital skills. Who knows: maybe one of the kids playing Crocro Adventure today may well deliver the breakthrough innovation of tomorrow.

Kicking off the full slate of presentations, discussions and hands-on labs held at San Francisco’s Moscone West convention center were keynote speeches from Samsung and tech industry leaders. The opening keynote event illuminated Samsung’s efforts to usher in the new phase of IoT that it’s calling “Intelligence of Things”, and showcased the exciting implications for developers and consumers.

Check out the highlights of the keynotes below.

SDC 2017 attendees take their seats before the start of the conference’s keynote event.

DJ Koh, Samsung Electronics’ President of Mobile Communications Business, opens the conference by discussing how Samsung’s leadership in hardware, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) is bringing the company closer to realizing its vision of an innovative future created through “connected thinking”, where connected experiences are seamless and unified across devices.

During his speech, Mr. Koh announced that Samsung will unite its IoT services – including Samsung Connect, SmartThings and ARTIK – into a powerful, integrated platform called SmartThings, which will go beyond smartphones and ultimately unite the world’s largest ecosystem of mobile devices, appliances, TVs and IoT sensors.

Next, Injong Rhee, Samsung Electronics’ Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Software and Services, discussed some of the user-experience challenges that can arise with screen or touch-panel technologies, and how Samsung’s Bixby interface – which currently features over 10 million active users – alleviates them.

Mr. Rhee also demonstrated exciting ways that users will be able to interact with their connected services in the new Intelligence of Things era. To illustrate this point, he offered attendees a glimpse of Project Ambience – a prototype dongle that may be applied to a variety of electronics to make them Bixby-compatible.

Gilles BianRosa, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer for Samsung’s Visual Display Business, revealed that beginning in 2018, Samsung will offer Bixby-enabled TVs in the US and Korea. He followed up that announcement by discussing the exciting opportunities that the TVs’ Bixby integration and seamless connectivity will create, including intuitive voice controls and multi-device viewing experiences.

Yoon C. Lee, Samsung Electronics America’s Senior Vice President and Division Head of Content and Services, discussed how adding Bixby support and SmartThings integration to Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerators marks a big step – one that will offer developers “tremendous opportunities to develop new content, applications and experiences in areas like food, health, home management, entertainment, and more.”

Eui-Suk Chung, Samsung Electronics’ Executive Vice President and Head of the Service Intelligence Team, offered attendees a peek at Bixby 2.0 – an update of the intelligent assistant that’s even more ubiquitous, open and personal.

Dag Kittlaus, CEO and Co-Founder of Viv Labs, described the exciting benefits that Bixby 2.0 presents for developers. These include the abilities to build services without being limited by domains or interfaces, and make services compatible with any and all electronic devices. Mr. Kittlaus also announced that Bixby 2.0 is currently being introduced as a private beta SDK available to select partners, and is set to roll out in 2018.

Robert Parker, Samsung Electronics’ Chief Technology Officer of SmartThings, elaborated on how the platform’s support for broad integration allows developers to create seamless experiences that utilize the full Samsung device ecosystem, and highlighted how partners like ADT and NVIDIA are harnessing SmartThings to better serve their customers.

James Stansberry, the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center’s (SSIC) Senior Vice President and General Manager of ARTIK IoT, outlined how Samsung’s ARTIK IoT platform will merge with SmartThings to become an ideal platform for developing enterprise-grade IoT products and services, and introduced new, secure system-on-modules (SoMs) that offer important security enhancements for IoT solutions.

Pranav Mistry, Samsung Electronics’ Senior Vice President of Research, shared some of Samsung’s exciting developments in AR, and discussed how the company incorporates advanced object recognition and spatial understanding software into its smartphones’ cameras to create new ways to interact with the world.

Google’s Vice President of Virtual and Augmented Reality, Clay Bavor, joined Mr. Mistry on stage to illustrate how Samsung and Google’s partnership on ARCore, an augmented reality SDK for Android, is opening the door for incredible AR innovations that will benefit developers and users. A preview of ARCore is currently supported by Samsung’s Galaxy S8, and support for the Galaxy S8+ and Note8 is coming soon.

Attendees examine the wide range of Samsung technologies that empower developers to design connected solutions that enrich daily life.

The Samsung ARTIK IoT Platform with SmartThings Cloud will provide everything companies need to quickly develop secure IoT products and services including production-ready hardware, software and tools, cloud services and a growing partner ecosystem. The addition of new ARTIK secure IoT modules enables device-level protection for safe data exchange, interoperability, and secure access to ARTIK IoT services including device onboarding, orchestration, management, and over-the-air updates.

“Security in the age of IoT means new levels of complexity and risk. The next generation of IoT products and services will be more deeply integrated into our lives than ever before,” said James Stansberry, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ARTIK IoT, Samsung Electronics. “Unfortunately, most companies are not prepared to address the challenges of securing every link of the chain, from device to IoT cloud. With the ARTIK IoT Platform and our new security hardened system-on-modules, we make it easier and more affordable for companies to adopt best security practices and deliver trustworthy products that will shape the future of IoT.”

New ARTIK Secure Systems-on-Modules

The new ARTIK secure IoT modules combine hardware-backed security with pre-integrated memory, processing, and connectivity for a broad range of IoT applications, from simple edge nodes like sensors and controllers, to home appliances, healthcare monitors, and gateways for smart factories. This helps protect data and prevent devices from being taken over, disabled, or used maliciously.

“The New ARTIK secure systems-on-modules provide the performance and security features we need for our new Samsung IoT appliances,” said Youngsoo Do, Senior Vice President of Digital Control Group at Samsung Electronics. “Together, Samsung ARTIK platform and SmartThings Cloud will create opportunities to help us to get to market faster and safely deliver new services that will enrich the lives of our customers.”

ARTIK secure IoT modules provide a strong root of trust from device-to-cloud with a factory-injected unique ID and keys stored in tamper-resistant hardware. Samsung’s public key infrastructure (PKI) enables mutual authentication to the cloud to identify each device on the network and support whitelisting. Customers can use the new Secure Boot feature and code signing portal to validate software authenticity on start-up. In addition, the secure IoT modules provide a hardware-protected Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) with a secure operating system and security library to process, store, and manage sensitive resources, including keys and tokens on devices. Information is protected using FIPS 140-2 data encryption and secure data storage.

“Hardening the security of IoT devices once the product has been deployed is extremely difficult,” said Vikrant Gandhi, Digital Transformation Industry Director at Frost & Sullivan. “Manufacturers must use components that have built-in defenses for both device and data integrity. ARTIK IoT platform’s new security measures provide this protection from the start, and helps companies operate more safely in the Internet of Things.”

ARTIK “s” secure IoT modules will be available on November 30 through Samsung ARTIK channel partners. The ARTIK IoT Platform and ARTIK cloud services are available today.

Ecosystem Expansion

Samsung’s new SmartThings Cloud will unite all of the company’s existing IoT cloud services – Samsung Connect Cloud and ARTIK Cloud – into one consolidated IoT cloud platform. This seamless, open ecosystem will allow better and easier connectivity across an expanded set of devices and services from home to industrial applications.

In addition to today’s announcements, Samsung continues to expand the ARTIK IoT Platform and accelerate businesses’ path to profitability. This expansion includes the recent launch of the new ARTIK service to monetize data from interoperable devices and enable an IoT data economy, as well as the addition of Ubuntu, the industry’s most familiar Linux distribution, on ARTIK high performance system-on-modules. Earlier this month, Samsung – as a member of the Industry Council (ITI) – also announced a commitment to enable a National IoT Strategy Dialogue that is open, collaborative and secure.

For more information:

Samsung ARTIK platform, visit https://artik.io and https://artik.cloud

Samsung ARTIK marketplace, visit https://www.artik.io/iotmarketplace

Today at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017 in San Francisco, I was honored to share Samsung’s vision for intelligence, with the introduction of Bixby 2.0 – a powerful intelligent assistant platform that will bring a connected experience that is ubiquitous, personal, and open.  Bixby 2.0 will be a fundamental leap forward for digital assistants and represents another important milestone to transform our digital lives.

Today’s assistants are useful, but ultimately still play a limited role in people’s lives. People use them to set timers and reminders, answer trivial questions, etc. We see a world where digital assistant play a bigger role, an intelligent role, where one day everything from our phones, to our fridge, to our sprinkler system will have some sort of intelligence to help us seamlessly interact with all the technology we use each day.

To understand where we are going with devices, it is important to understand how far we’ve come. It is hard to believe, when you think back to just a decade ago, how we used our phones. It was likely a feature phone, which was primarily used to make calls and use a limited number of apps. But I knew, we at Samsung knew, that there were greater possibilities for the mobile phone. During the early and mid-2000, I led the team at Samsung in creating the Mobile Intelligent Terminal by Samsung (MITs), which was an early generation of smartphones before the Galaxy S and Note series were finally born. Powered by open API, application eco-system and innovative touch UI, smartphone market has, ever since then, exploded and became a life-essential tool for everyone. It also brought new opportunities for businesses and developers.

I believe that we are now on the cusp of the next major tectonic shift. With our long legacy as the global smartphone leader, we’ve been bringing meaningful innovation and driving digital transformation for the industry, and we are excited to help lead the change during another revolutionary moment. Personally, I am excited to be part of this next great era and this shift is one of the reasons why we are motivated to continue to develop our intelligent assistant, Bixby.

We introduced Bixby to the world earlier this year with the launch of our flagship mobile devices, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the Note 8. Bixby is now available in over 200 different countries, with more than 10 million registered users. But this is just a start. When we launched Bixby, we focused on how it could help people with getting the most out of their smartphones and apps to make their life easier. We integrated a few close partner applications on the device to make those devices more intelligent. We created multi-step, and cross-app capabilities that have allowed more than millions of Bixby users get things done faster and easier, but it is just a stepping stone for us.

Now, we are ready to take Bixby to the next level. Bixby 2.0 is a bold reinvention of the platform. A reinvention aimed at transforming basic digital assistants from a novelty to an intelligence tool that is a key part of everyone’s daily life.

Bixby 2.0 will be ubiquitous, available on any and all devices. This means having the intelligence of Bixby, powered by the cloud, act as the control hub of your device ecosystem, including mobile phones, TVs, refrigerators, home speakers, or any other connected technology you can imagine. Soon, developers will be able to put their services on any and all devices and will not have to reinvent their services each time they support a new device.

It will be more personal, with enhanced natural language capabilities for more natural commands and complex processing, so it can really get to know and understand not only who you are, but who members of your family are, and tailor its response and actions appropriately.

And finally, and most importantly, Bixby 2.0 will be open. We know Samsung cannot deliver on this paradigm shift by ourselves – it can only happen if we all, across all industries, work together, in partnership. With Bixby 2.0, the doors will be wide open for developers to choose and model how users interact with Bixby in their services across all application domains e.g., sports, food, entertainment, or travel – the opportunities are truly endless.

Starting today, we’re announcing our first private beta program with Bixby SDK, which will be available for select developers. We will work as one team, innovating, collaborating, and bringing Bixby 2.0 to life. Over time, we will increase the number of participants in the beta, and ultimately make the Bixby SDK available to all developers.

Bixby 2.0 will ultimately be a marketplace, for intelligence. A new channel for developers to reach users with their service, not just on mobile devices, but through all devices. Over time, we will rollout variety of revenue models to maximize our partners’ business opportunities in this new paradigm. Hopefully making it as fruitful as the move from feature to smartphones was for our partners.

The future is yours. Whatever your technology platform, device category or industry sector: we call on all developers to unleash their creativity and help us to democratize intelligence, so that we can move beyond devices and into an open, connected ecosystem to simplify the lives of everyone.

Samsung Electronics introduces the 360 Round, a new camera for developing and streaming high-quality 3D content for specialists and enthusiasts who demand a superior virtual reality (VR) experience. Announced at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC 2017), the Samsung 360 Round uses 17 lenses—eight stereo pairs positioned horizontally and one single lens positioned vertically—to livestream 4K 3D video and spatial audio, and create engaging 3D images with depth.

The 360 Round’s durable, compact design features IP65¹ water and dust resistance for use in everyday weather conditions and a fanless design to reduce weight and eliminate background noise. With additional features, including PC software for controlling and stitching and expandable external storage², the 360 Round provides long lasting shooting for any sized job.

The growth of 360 content platforms, such as Samsung VR, Facebook and YouTube, as well as the spread of 360 videos through major media, has increased the need for high-quality 360 videos among VR professionals and enthusiasts. The 360 Round is the first product to meet these needs by combining high-quality, 360-degree imagery with advanced 3D depth at a reasonable price compared to other professional 360 cameras.

“The Samsung 360 Round is a testament to our leadership in the VR market. We have developed a product that contains innovative VR features, allowing video producers and broadcast professionals to easily produce high quality 3D content,” said Suk-Jea Hahn, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics’ Global Mobile B2B Team. “The combination of livestreaming capabilities, IP65 water and dust resistance and 17 lenses makes this camera ideal for a broad range of use cases our customers want—from livestreaming major events to filming at training facilities across various industries.”

The Samsung 360 Round combines high-quality images with a durable design and a content management software solution that allows VR directors to transform virtual reality through a complete set of advanced features.

High-Quality 360 Content

The 360 Round offers high-quality 3D images with a 4K camera, thanks to 17 paired lenses that capture a 360-degree view for a full 3D experience. In addition, the 360 Round enables live streaming with little-to-no latency³ and broadcasts easier than ever, with one-step stitching and control software provided by Samsung.

Durability

The Samsung 360 Round uses a uni-body chassis designed to reduce heat, removing the need for a cooling fan and minimizing size and weight. The compact design helps eliminate excess noise and reduce power consumption for hours of continuous shooting. Additionally, the 360 Round is IP65¹ dust and water resistant, making it an ideal choice for capturing content in the most challenging environments. With expandable connectors and ports, the 360 Round is designed to easily and quickly connect to additional equipment, such as an external mic, and storage for saving large files.

The Samsung 360 Round will be available in October in the United States before expanding to other markets over time. For more information please visit http://www.samsungmobilepress.com or www.samsung.com/galaxy.

360 Round Product Specification

¹When using this feature, please put AC adaptor in a waterproof pack

²Sold separately

³Depending on network connections

*All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

“At Samsung, we’re constantly innovating in order to deliver smarter, connected experiences for our consumers. Now we’re taking a big step forward with our open IoT platform, intelligent ecosystem and AR capabilities,” said DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “Through an extensive open collaboration with our business partners and developers, we are unlocking a gateway to an expanded ecosystem of interconnected and intelligent services that will simplify and enrich everyday life for our consumers.”

Samsung also demonstrated Project Ambience, a small dongle or chip that can be applied into a wide variety of objects, allowing them to seamlessly connect, and create a ubiquitous Bixby experience. This new concept reflects the next generation of IoT, that of the “Intelligence of Things,” which combines IoT and intelligence to make your life easier.

Democratizing the Internet of Things

Samsung is combining its existing IoT services—SmartThings, Samsung Connect, and ARTIK—into one united IoT platform: SmartThings Cloud, which will provide a single, powerful cloud-based hub that can seamlessly connect and control IoT-enabled products and services from a unified touchpoint. SmartThings Cloud will build one of the world’s largest IoT ecosystems, and will provide the infrastructure for a connected consumer experience that is innovative, versatile and holistic.

With SmartThings Cloud, developers will have access to one cloud API across all SmartThings-compatible products to build their connected solutions and bring them to more people. It will also provide secure interoperability and services for business developing commercial and industrial IoT solutions.

Next-Generation Intelligence

Samsung is moving intelligence beyond devices and into an ubiquitous, personal and open ecosystem with introduction of Bixby 2.0 with SDK, integrated with Viv technologies.

Bixby 2.0 will be available on a variety of devices including Samsung Smart TV and Family Hub refrigerator. Now, Bixby will sit at the center of consumers’ intelligent ecosystem. Bixby 2.0 will introduce deep linking capabilities, and enhanced natural language abilities—to better recognize individual users, and create a predictive, personalized experience that better anticipate their needs.

In order to build this faster, easier and more powerful intelligent assistant platform, Samsung will provide the tools to bring Bixby 2.0 into a wider number of applications and services. The Bixby SDK will be available to select developers and through a private beta program, with general availability coming in the near future.

Leadership in Augmented Reality

Building upon Samsung’s heritage of creating pioneering technology that delivers incredible experiences to unlock new realities such as VR, the company is committed to continuing to advance technologies in AR. Through a partnership with Google, developers will be able to use the ARCore SDK to bring AR to millions of Samsung consumers on the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Note8. This strategic partnership with Google offers new business opportunities for developers, and a new platform for creating immersive new experiences for consumers.

For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference, visit https://www.sdc2017.com or follow @samsung_dev on Twitter.

Samsung Electronics released its keynote speaker and program schedule for Samsung Developer Conference (SDC), the arena that brings together some of the world’s most prominent innovators, entrepreneurs, artists and storytellers that are shaping the future of connected thinking and technology.

SDC 2017 will feature a special keynote from DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, who will unveil Samsung’s vision to connect all devices and services in an intuitive way and discuss a new initiative to create a seamless cloud experience for users. Additional notable keynote speakers include Samsung Electronics Executive Vice Presidents Injong Rhee, Head of R&D, Software & Services of Mobile Communications Business and Eui Suk Chung, Head of Service Intelligence of Mobile Communications Business.

Special guest participants will include Stan Lee, world renowned former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. Rain Paris, musician and YouTube star, will join Lee to lead a discussion of how connected thinking motivates creativity and disruption in a session called “Marvel, Movies and Music.” Arianna Huffington, Thrive Global founder and CEO, will join Marc Mathieu, CMO of Samsung Electronics America, in a keynote conversation on Samsung and Thrive’s shared philosophy on the use of technology to create social good. Additionally, SDC 2017 will feature a Creators Track, with talks from some of the most innovative and creative minds at the intersection of intelligent technology and design.

“At Samsung, the concept of connected thinking is at the heart of everything we do,” said DJ Koh. “Developers and partners are the backbone of Samsung experience and their work continues to enable us to drive innovation. That is why I am thrilled to be a part of this event and unveil some exciting news with this community at SDC 2017.”

“I am truly thrilled to have been asked by Samsung to keynote at their annual conference,” said Stan Lee. “Samsung has a long history of creating technology that helps push the limits of human creativity and as they continue to innovate, we’ll have greater opportunities to deliver our creative visions for the enjoyment of others.”

At SDC 2017, attendees can expect to learn about Samsung’s new initiative in creating a seamless cloud experience, which is part of its broader efforts to provide an easy and consistent user experience across devices. Samsung will also showcase its commitment to an open ecosystem of partners in areas including IoT and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Attendees will also have the opportunity to help build the next generation of services by learning about myriad topics including enterprise, games & entertainment, health, intelligence, IoT, mobile, payment, security, smart TV, virtual reality and wearables through technical talks, hands-on experiences and thought leader panels.

This year’s event will also feature activities such as stream.Code101, an in-depth and hands-on instruction for developers around emerging services such as VR, Samsung DeX and SmartThings, as well as Open Theater, an open stage for events and presentations such as startup pitch idea presentations, an Ask-Me-Anything session with Stan Lee and more.

SDC 2017 is a two-day event for leaders to network and learn about the next wave of intelligent technology. You can learn more about the SDC 2017 speakers here, and the full agenda here.

Register for SDC 2017

To sign-up for this year’s conference, visit https://www.sdc2017.com and register for your place today. Additional information can be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and at the hashtag, #SDC2017.

For Young Jun Lee, 12-year-old middle school student, traveling to the Samsung Developer Conference was a unique chance to be treated like any other app developer. While he was still in elementary school, Young Jun won the 2015 Junior Software Cup in Korea for his app Don’t Forget Me, which helps people to water and take care of their plants.

Because of that impressive achievement, Samsung Electronics invited Young Jun to attend SDC 2016, where he presented his app and met with developers from around the world. Held in San Francisco on April 27-28, the SDC 2016 featured more than 4,000 developers, coming together to discuss the latest technologies and future of innovation.

Samsung Newsroom spoke with Young Jun to talk about his experiences attending SDC as the youngest app developer there, programming and plants, as well as his plans for the future.

Q. What is this Don’t Forget Me app?

So, it’s basically an app that helps you remember when to water your plants. It kind of gives you an alarm when to water your plants, and it has some other features, like drawing the plants and sharing that information. People might think that watering is something boring but I tried to make it fun.

Q. There were about 1,000 teams in the Junior Software Cup. Why do you think you were one of the winners?

The subject of the cup was “family,” so a lot of people made awesome projects about communication and family. But I think I won a grand prize because I used plants as an intermediary subject, which was really new for the judges. Having a new approach I think really helped me. Having a mobile part of the app helped, too. Because my program needed that. You can’t really run to a desktop every time you water a plant.

Q. How did you get interested in programming?

Actually, my dad bought me a book that oddly enough was a book about programming. It was a kind of guide that explained the basics of syntax and a bit about algorithms. He didn’t really expect me to have so much interest in it, but I was really interested in how programs can be used to simulate living things and help them. That first book was about the C programming language, and then I think I used C# and Java.

Because I used to make some personal project with Java, I’m really used to it. I was really interested in living things, so I searched for information about programming about living things. And I made an algorithm to plan a shortest path, a kind of utility program. But it all really interested me.

I also really liked Scratch (Educational programming language). I learned it by myself, then studied it more in an after-school club.

Q. How was the SDC?

I was really excited that I could meet people that I could actually talk to about programming and share opinions. I was extremely excited, although I was a bit nervous for the keynote speech.

I also got to see many projects, with technology I had never heard of. It was really like being in the future or something. Everyone was kind of active and they treated me kindly, so I really learned a lot. Another reason I really liked SDC is that they didn’t look at me as a student, but as a developer. I’d like to meet more people like that.

Q. What was coolest thing to learn about at SDC?

There was the cloud platform called Samsung ARTIK. I was kind of curious about that. I wandered around the booth in the Artik corner and learned more about it. It was kind of like Raspberry Pi-slash-Arduino (open-source educational kits for learning computing and building digital devices), but for IoT. I thought it was pretty awesome.

Q. What would you like to do in the future? Do you want to continue programming?

Actually, one of my goals is to become a biologist. The reason I first got interested in biology was because of insects. I really like to keep insects in my place. Beatles and things. That was kind of the reason I first got an interest in biology. And from then I was also interested in the environment and how these living things are linked.

But I think programming will be applied to every subject in the future, and I’m really looking forward to combining the subject with programming. I actually believe I can make a better world with it.

VR Tunnel at Samsung 837

The cynics sometimes look at VR as a gimmick or parlor trick. That’s often the first reaction to a novel technology.

In VR’s case, however, they underestimate one of the most important and significant technological advances in a generation. In no uncertain terms, virtual reality is going to change everything—the way people experience and interact with content. It makes the impossible possible by bringing users to places they otherwise would have never gone to, or by enabling people to better understand and connect with others in an empathic way they may never have imagined. VR is ushering in a generation of immersive storytelling and will revolutionize the way that we think about business, communication and entertainment.

And we’re just at the beginning of this new frontier.

To date, the easiest place to see VR’s mark is in entertainment. Filmmakers are telling more engaging stories than they ever have before. Content is no longer limited to being presentational—it’s immersive—and we’re working with some of the biggest brands, and most creative storytellers, to bring these new worlds directly to our customers.

We joined forces with the NBA to put audiences courtside—or even better, on the court, to experience what it’s like to be a pro-athlete; produced the first ever short form VR comedy sketch with Funny or Die; partnered with the Sundance Institute, to produce new, interactive stories and experiences; teamed up with Wevr and Skybound Entertainment to premier GONE, an original thriller series; and broken new ground in entertainment and the arts with VICELAND.

VR is revolutionizing content, and filmmaking by changing the way we experience stories—but it’s also going beyond entertainment, and challenging us to rethink entire businesses and enterprises.

At Samsung, our VR technology is utilized to develop training simulators for surgeons and pilots. Marriott is using Samsung VR technology to provide custom, premium VR experiences for their most valued guests. Matterport users in the real estate industry utilize the Gear VR platform to provide virtual reality home tours to their clients. And governments are developing software that works with our VR headsets giving greater situational awareness to remotely piloted aircraft operators.

From entertainment, to business, to everything in between—VR is one of the rare technologies that will radically transform nearly every part of our lives. And that’s the most exciting thing about VR—not what we’ve accomplished so far, but what we’re going to accomplish in the future. For all the innovations and breakthroughs, this is still a nascent technology, and a young platform. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what VR is capable of, and which industries, fields it can disrupt.

The technology industry has recognized VR’s enormous potential. The latest estimates from global market research firm TrendForce show the virtual reality market skyrocketing from under $7 billion today to $70 billion in 2020. In the next ten years, it’s estimated that there will be 135 million VR headsets in America alone.* That’s one for every 3 people!

But, there’s a catch— the hardware can’t do it alone. VR is more than just a product, it’s a platform whose hardware, software and content will be just as critical to its success as the experiences that are produced because of it. The reason so many analysts have such high hopes for VR has less to do with the internal circuitry of the headsets and cameras, and more to do with the stories we can tell, the experiences we can share, and the marketplaces we can transform with them. Simply put, the success of VR hardware is inextricably linked to the content and services that power it and the partnerships that are formed as a result of it.

It’s akin to the smartphone market in the mid-2000s. The devices only caught fire when the app ecosystem began to thrive. It was only when the broader developer and content creator communities recognized the potential that the platform offered, that the hardware came to life. Now, just ten years later, we all have a smartphone in our pocket; and we think about them as more than pieces of hardware—but as portals to entertainment, connectivity, and commerce.

We expect the same trajectory for VR. That’s why Samsung is partnering with the best and brightest to build momentum for the medium, and push the limits of the technology.

To keep up the pace of progress, we need developers. VR is a new arena, and that requires an entirely new ecosystem that we have to continue to build, together. It’s not as simple as changing a few lines of code on an app, or changing a setting on a video—we need to empower our partners to create new content and services that are built specifically for the VR platform.

VR Evangelist Dustin Wish helps attendees on Day 0 of the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco’s Moscone Center during the Gear VR: Developing Apps for the Virtual World workshop.

And at the 2016 Samsung Developer conference, that’s exactly what we did with VR-focused educational sessions that enabled people who built the technology to connect with those that are writing its future. VR is at the tipping point. Together we can push it over the edge. And when we do, entertainment, business—our entire world—will never be the same again.

*http://www.fastcompany.com/3058836/vr-gaining-steam-but-not-mainstream-yet-report-finds

Source: Samsung Newsroom US

“Software is everywhere you look now. It’s in our phones, our cars, and even our smart watches. Code is the key to unlocking human potential and developers have a big part to play in this rapidly growing movement,” said Dongjin Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics to those in attendance. “The theme of SDC is ‘connecting the future everywhere you look.’ That means: everywhere you go, there will be opportunities to bring devices and people together. It also means there will be opportunities for you to connect with the future, right now.”

New and enhanced developer-driven technologies, tools and opportunities introduced today include:

Internet of Things: Building the IoT Ecosystem

At SDC 2016, Samsung introduced essential new easy-to-use, open APIs and tools for the SAMSUNG ARTIK Platform, an end-to-end, integrated IoT platform that transforms the process of building and launching IoT products. Using these APIs and tools, companies can securely collect, store, and act on any data from any connected device or cloud service in order to quickly bring new IoT solutions and services to market, tap into new revenue streams, and grow their business.

Samsung’s open platform standards enable faster and simpler development of new enterprise, industrial, and consumer applications. Customers with varying levels of skillsets and requirements will benefit from a range of tools and APIs that map to the widest range of IoT devices and projects, all based on a professional-grade, highly integrated, and familiar development platform that includes the essential building blocks and breakthrough technologies to establish a powerful new IoT ecosystem and launch IoT applications into the future.

Entertainment Services & Virtual Reality:

Virtual reality was another key topic at the Samsung Developer Conference this year. Following the popularity of the Gear VR powered by Oculus, Samsung continued to expand its VR leadership with the announcement of the Gear 360 in February. Samsung Gear 360 lets consumers easily create, view and share their favorite experiences through 360-degree video and still image content.

Samsung also introduced an array of developer tools for TVs including the Samsung Smart TV SDK, Samsung TV Toast which enables developer to export their codes to multiple TV platforms, and Samsung Checkout on TV, a new Smart TV optimized payment solution.

Security Signature Services:

Samsung Knox, the award winning security platform, is expanding to include more devices and increase interoperability. Samsung Knox will now serve as the foundation for all enterprise solutions and services including healthcare, automotive, finance and other segments. With this evolution, Knox will now cover mid-tier devices, and be embedded on wearable devices such as the Samsung Gear S2.  Knox will also be extended beyond the Android operating system to include Samsung’s Tizen operating system, allowing millions more Samsung device owners to benefit from defense-grade security, while capitalizing on a networked world to improve productivity.

Citizenship Showcase: Young Coders from around the World

As part of its commitment to STEM education and inspiring young people in coding, Samsung organizes competitions and coding initiatives around the world. At SDC 2016, Samsung invited six young software developers from the United States, Argentina and Korea to present their ideas and meet with professional developers. :

From the United States, two winners of the 2015 U.S. Mobile App Academy presented their respective app creations: Med Kid, which aims to create a fun way to incentivize children who are seriously ill to keep track of and take their medications, and Code Clash, a game that teaches kids coding and helps solve the disparity of available engineers in the specific field of JAVA programming. Three students from Argentina and a student from Korea also attended to each demonstrate their winning mobile apps project.

And while the company continues to enlist the help of external developers, it is also making use of talent within its own employee base through its five C-Lab projects. C-Lab enables Samsung employees to pursuing their own creative business ideas.

For exclusive, one-of-kind content showcasing SDC 2016, please visit the Samsung U.S. Newsroom at: http://news.samsung.com/us and http://news.samsung.com/global. Follow us and engage on Twitter: @samsungnewsus using hashtag #iheartSDC.