All eyes were fixed on the screen, set to announce the champion. Then, when the Team Atlanta logo appeared, the silence erupted into thunderous cheers and applause. It was the culmination of two years of relentless effort and determination, which had resulted in the team rising above world-class competitors to win the first-place prize of $4 million.

▲ Team Atlanta wins first place at the AI Cyber Challenge.

To take readers behind the scenes of their inspiring journey, Samsung Newsroom sat down with Taesoo Kim, Corporate Vice President, and Joonun Jang from Samsung Research’s Security & Privacy Team, along with Yunjae Choi from the AI Productivity Team.

▲ (From left) Taesoo Kim, Joonun Jang and Yunjae Choi from Samsung Research

Team Atlanta: A 40-Strong Global Alliance of Top Researchers, Engineers and Hackers

The AI Cyber Challenge is a global security technology competition hosted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Sponsored by leading tech companies including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, the latest edition of the event featured a total prize pool of $22.5 million. At this event, Team Atlanta — a coalition of more than 40 world-class security researchers from Samsung Research, the Georgia Institute of Technology, KAIST, POSTECH and other leading institutions — came together under the leadership of Taesoo Kim, who also played a pivotal role in assembling the team.

▲ Taesoo Kim explains what inspired the team to take on the challenge.

Also a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Kim reached out to several of his former Ph.D. students after first learning about the AI Cyber Challenge and encouraged them to join. They soon became the core members of Team Atlanta.

Under Kim’s leadership, Team Atlanta brought together talent from across Korea and both the East and West Coasts of the United States. “Because our members came from such diverse locations, we structured our collaboration framework around each member’s base,” he recalled. “Some of our colleagues in Korea even carved out time from their busy schedules to travel to the Georgia Institute of Technology so we could work side by side.”

How Team Atlanta Outpaced the Competition

The AI Cyber Challenge is a competition designed to test the ability to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in large-scale software systems. Its ultimate aim is to accelerate the development of AI-powered security technologies capable of protecting critical infrastructure such as transportation, energy and healthcare. In the final round, participants were tasked with building an AI-driven “Cyber Reasoning System (CRS)” capable of autonomously detecting software vulnerabilities and generating security patches.

Scoring was mainly based on two components: vulnerability discovery and program repair. Teams earned discovery points for accurately identifying weaknesses in the given code, and repair points for successfully patching them. In short, a team’s score reflected how quickly its system could detect vulnerabilities in the organizer’s source code, how many it could detect and how accurately it could fix them.

▲ The first-place trophy and Team Atlanta’s winning scorecard

Team Atlanta clinched the championship with a decisive lead, uncovering more vulnerabilities and patching them with better accuracy than their competitors.

Jang, who oversaw the development of a large language model (LLM) agent for detecting vulnerabilities in Java programs, explained that the agent helped Team Atlanta’s system detect more vulnerabilities during the competition. “Team members each developed their agents in various ways, and by bringing them together, we were able to build a system capable of covering a wide range of weaknesses,” he said.

▲ Joonun Jang explains the LLM agent Team Atlanta developed for detecting vulnerabilities in Java programs.

Choi, meanwhile, was in charge of developing AI agents that automatically patch vulnerabilities once they are identified. “Since AI was a common tool provided to all participants, true technological excellence lay in how effectively we could harness it,” he noted. “The key challenge was creating AI agents flexible enough to respond to newly discovered vulnerabilities.”

▲ Yunjae Choi explains the AI agents Team Atlanta developed to automatically patch vulnerabilities.

When Seconds Feel Like Eternity

On August 8, the seven finalists gathered in Las Vegas for the final announcement — the culmination of two years of effort. As the world’s largest cybersecurity competition, the event brought together top teams from around the globe, all waiting in tense anticipation. When the third- and second-place winners were revealed, Team Atlanta’s name had still not been called.

“Given how many outstanding teams were competing, I thought that even placing in the top three would have been a great achievement,” said Jang. “So in those moments before the first-place announcement, I was worried but cautiously hopeful at the same time.”

When Team Atlanta’s logo finally appeared on the screen confirming their victory, the audience erupted. “We had only dared to hope, but when we were actually named first place, it was as if the whole team had suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a festival,” said Choi.

“The two years of preparation felt like the shortest time of my life, while the one hour spent waiting for the results felt like the longest,” Kim reflected.

▲ The moment Team Atlanta was announced as the winner of the 2025 AI Cyber Challenge

“I suddenly became emotional when I remembered how, just before the final submission deadline, we had discovered a critical bug in the system we had submitted early to stay ahead of schedule. We worked frantically until the very last minute. I even had to wake the entire team up at 5 a.m. to fix the problem. Just thinking about it still gives me chills,” he added.

▲ (From left) Taesoo Kim, Yunjae Choi and Joonun Jang,

Samsung’s Vision for the Future of AI Security

With its victory at the AI Cyber Challenge, Samsung has once again underscored its technological leadership and global competitiveness in AI security. Going forward, the company plans to further advance next-generation AI security solutions so that they become increasingly capable of autonomously identifying and addressing vulnerabilities.

“Samsung’s AI security technologies are already being applied to strengthen the protection of products and services, including Galaxy devices and AI TVs,” said Kim. “Through continued open-source contributions and active community engagement, we aim to solidify our position as a global leader in AI security.”

Audio Eraser, introduced in the Galaxy S25 series, was designed to address such situations by reducing unwanted background noise and enhancing desired sounds to help users create more immersive videos.¹ Galaxy AI features like Audio Eraser — developed with a deep understanding of user needs — was made possible thanks to the proactive efforts of Samsung Research and the Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Newsroom sat down with audio technology experts from the AI Solution Team at Samsung Research to learn more about the development of this innovative feature.

▲ (From left) Kyoungbo Min, Hejung Yang, Hosang Sung and Jiwon Kim from the AI Solution Team at Samsung Research

Source Detection: The Future of Next-Generation Audio Technology

Audio Eraser enables users to adjust sounds within a video by removing unwanted noise and enhancing the audio they want to highlight. The feature quickly scans a video to detect and separate sounds by type, and can be used not only on clips recorded by the user but also on videos that have been shared or received.

Just as Object Eraser improved image editing and usability with its debut in the Galaxy S21 series, Audio Eraser was developed to deliver a more advanced and seamless multimedia experience across both audio and video.

▲ Audio Eraser allows users to adjust sounds by type within a video.

Developing Sound Source Detection and Separation Models

Audio Eraser recognizes six types of sound — voices, music, wind, nature sounds, crowd noise and ambient noise. Using sound source detection technology, the feature quickly identifies what sounds are present and where they occur in a video. Then, through sound source separation technology, it isolates and classifies each sound into distinct categories.

To build AI models capable of detecting and isolating these audio types, the research team began by collecting a robust set of training data. They simulated a wide range of real-world video recording scenarios to generate diverse audio datasets — and even went into the field to capture everyday sounds firsthand.

“Wind was particularly challenging to work with,” said Hejung Yang from the AI Solution Team at Samsung Research. “Besides refining our wind simulation technology, we enhanced our dataset by recording actual wind sounds outdoors whenever strong winds occurred — even after work or on weekends.”

In addition, the team devoted extensive time to improving the performance of the sound source separation model by carefully reviewing countless video clips multiple times.

“Each developer compared and analyzed more than 1,000 audio samples every week under a variety of conditions,” said Jiwon Kim. “Through continuous experimentation, we worked to identify the most effective sound source separation model to ensure consistent, high-quality results.”

▲ Samsung researchers work on developing audio technology for Audio Eraser.

Delivering a New User-Centric Listening Experience

As Audio Eraser runs on-device, it offers an enhanced user experience with real-time editing and improved privacy protection. Samsung’s long-standing expertise in developing competitive on-device AI capabilities across various features played a key role in Audio Eraser’s success.

“We focused on developing AI models and algorithms capable of fast, on-device processing,” said Hosang Sung. “A great deal of effort went into creating an optimized AI solution that runs smoothly with low power consumption.”

Supported by a strong AI research infrastructure, Samsung Research continues to strengthen its capabilities in advanced audio technologies.

“We are committed to developing next-generation solutions that elevate the usability of mobile devices,” said Hoonyoung Cho, Vice President and Head of the AI Solution Team at Samsung Research. “Through sound control and audio enhancement technologies, we aim to deliver a truly selective and personalized listening experience.”

Integrated Collaboration With Product Development Teams

Turning advanced research into a consumer-ready solution brought a new set of challenges. For instance, when editing video and audio simultaneously, playback needed to remain smooth and uninterrupted. Additionally, processing videos longer than an hour required specialized technology capable of completing the task within the same timeframe.

To address these challenges, Samsung Research and the MX Business worked together — from proposing user-centric ideas to repeatedly testing software optimization techniques and evaluating audio quality. Together, they explored multiple approaches to determine the most effective solution.

The cross-functional collaboration had already proven successful in the development of the Galaxy Buds3 series (Buds3, Buds3 Pro). As the needs for listening in noisy environments grows — for everything from music and media experiences to listening to clearer phone calls — Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) has become an increasingly essential feature in wireless earbuds. Samsung raised the bar by developing its own Adaptive ANC technology. The Galaxy Buds3 series adapts to the fitting conditions of different users and changes in fit caused by prolonged wear to deliver optimized ANC performance.

Since earbuds are worn directly in the ear, close coordination between hardware and software teams was essential to finalize product specifications and fine-tune the ANC technology.

“We developed multiple algorithms in advance to accommodate different hardware conditions,” said Kyoungbo Min. “Through extensive simulations, we prepared a solution that could be quickly adapted to any chipset or device. The development process involved iterative revisions and improvements, but the close collaboration between advanced research and product teams helped accelerate commercialization.”

Sound source separation is a core area of next-generation audio technology, and Samsung continues to advance its foundational innovations in this field. With Audio Eraser making full use of sound source separation, the company is preparing to expand into a range of new applications. The ongoing evolution of Galaxy AI is expected to deliver even more practical and intuitive features for consumers.

¹ Results may vary per video depending on how sounds present in the video. Samsung Account login required. Certain types of sound can be detected such as voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise. The actual sound detection may vary depending on audio source and the condition of the video. Accuracy of results is not guaranteed.

Amid ongoing global discussions on future communication standards, Samsung and KT have begun research into eXtreme multiple-input multiple-output¹ (X-MIMO) — an ultra-high-density antenna technology designed to enhance 6G coverage and increase data transmission speeds.

The World Radiocommunication Conference² 2023 (WRC-23), hosted by the International Telecommunication Union³ (ITU), identified the 7 GHz band (7.125–8.4 GHz) as a candidate frequency for 6G. The global mobile communications industry considers this band as a key option due to its favorable frequency characteristics and spectrum availability. However, because the 7 GHz band operates at a higher frequency than the 3.5 GHz C-band used in 5G, it experiences greater signal path loss. Mitigating this loss is critical to achieving communication coverage comparable to that of 5G.

To address this challenge, the companies will research beamforming technology, which transmits focused signals in specific directions, and multi-spatial transmission technology, which uses multiple beams to deliver data to several users simultaneously. In X-MIMO systems operating in the 7 GHz band, more antennas will be used compared to 5G — requiring system architectures capable of efficiently managing ultra-high-density antennas.

Both companies plan to explore the convergence of telecommunications and AI to deliver an improved user experience, particularly in edge coverage areas. For example, AI can be used to predict and proactively respond to potential communication disruptions such as video streaming interruptions.

“We are committed to developing innovative 6G technologies that enhance both the operational efficiency of the 7GHz band and the overall user experience,” said Angelo Jeongho Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC), Samsung Research at Samsung Electronics. “Our collaboration with KT will serve as a key foundation for advancing next-generation communications through reasonable, cost-effective investments.”

“Through this joint research with Samsung Electronics, we expect to secure next-generation network technologies that differentiate the quality of the user experience,” said, Jong-Sik Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Future Network Laboratory at KT. “We will further strengthen our efforts in developing core 6G technologies to lead future mobile communication innovations.”

¹ Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology improves communication performance by utilizing multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver.
² The World Radio Communication Conference (WRC) is an intergovernmental event organized by the ITU to coordinate global frequency usage.
³ The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies with 193 Member States and more than 1,000 companies, universities, research institutes and international and regional organizations.

The paper, titled “Roll-to-plate printable RGB-achromatic metalens for wide-field-of-view holographic near-eye displays,” reflects the findings of research conducted by Samsung and POSTECH’s joint research team, wherein they developed an achromatic metalens free from color distortions and combined it with holographic displays to overcome various optical aberrations. This innovation paves the way for compact yet high-quality holographic XR wearable devices and applications in cameras and sensors.

Dr. Seokil Moon from Samsung Research and Professor Junsuk Rho from POSTECH led the study, with researchers Minseok Choi, Joohoon Kim and Kilsoo Shin from POSTECH also listed as co-authors of the paper.

Overcoming Conventional Chromatic Aberration Limitations To Achieve a Compact Achromatic Metalens

A metalens is a flat lens composed of nanoscale structures capable of controlling light diffraction, which can drastically reduce the size and thickness compared to traditional convex optical lenses.¹ For this reason, it has been recognized as a next-generation optical component for applications in displays and cameras, sparking over a decade of research.

Despite these advantages, metalenses have encountered technical challenges in product development due to severe chromatic aberration,² which leads to significant image distortion.

Previous efforts to eliminate chromatic aberration in metalenses relied on designing individual metastructures independently and subsequently assembling them onto a substrate. As a result, the interrelationships between structures were overlooked during the design phase, preventing the complete reduction of chromatic aberration in the final lens.

The research team overcame the challenge of chromatic aberration reduction by redefining the conventional design approach for metalenses. By accounting for the interrelationships between all metastructures during the design phase and designing them simultaneously, the team has successfully eliminated chromatic aberration after fabrication.

In addition to eliminating chromatic aberration, the achromatic metalens developed by the team also achieves a shorter focal length, significantly reducing the lens’ size and weight.³

Higher Resolution and Less Eye Strain With a Single Lens

Typically, metalenses exhibit various optical aberrations beyond chromatic aberration, with image distortion worsening as screen size increases. These issues have traditionally been addressed by combining multiple lenses. However, the research team has resolved various optical aberrations within the device by integrating a single achromatic metalens with a holographic display, achieving a wide field of view and distortion-free, high-quality images.

Additionally, through technical validation, the research team has demonstrated that substituting conventional optical lenses and displays with achromatic metalenses and holographic displays enables the delivery of compact, lightweight and virtual images that cause less eye strain.⁴

The findings of this study are anticipated to be applied to immersive media devices such as those equipped with extended reality (XR) capabilities. They will also be used in various optical systems — including displays, cameras and sensors — to enhance performance and reduce size.

Through this collaboration between industry and academia, Samsung has validated the entire process — from conceptualizing innovative ideas to implementation — confirming the potential for advancing various future optical systems and securing next-generation display technologies.

Samsung remains committed to ongoing research efforts, aiming to secure groundbreaking technologies that will shape the future through continued collaborations with academia and other industry-leading initiatives.

¹ A convex lens typically has a thickness of several millimeters, sometimes exceeding a centimeter, whereas metalenses are much thinner, usually less than 0.5 mm.
² Chromatic aberration, also called color fringing, occurs when a lens fails to focus all colors to the same point, creating colored fringes along the edges of objects in photographs.
³ Compared to previously proposed achromatic metalenses, this research has fabricated metalenses that are 3–5 times larger in size while maintaining the same focusing power (numerical aperture).
⁴ The image quality is enhanced by 13% after aberrations are corrected using the holographic display. The image quality is measured using the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), which is widely used in image and signal processing.

Samsung Newsroom took a closer look at the technology behind Eclipsa Audio and how it delivers lifelike 3D spatial audio.

Developing 3D Spatial Audio Technology

In 2023, the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) — a global consortium that includes Samsung, Google, Netflix, Meta and other leading companies — officially adopted Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) as the industry standard for 3D audio. Developed by Samsung and Google, this innovative 3D audio format is currently available to content creators under the brand name Eclipsa Audio.

Eclipsa Audio establishes a shared protocol between different types of media content and the devices that play them. The format delivers a deeply immersive listening experience by optimizing and adapting audio positioning, intensity, spatial reflections and other sound elements to various output environments, such as cinemas, home theater systems, gaming consoles and mobile devices.

Depending on the output device, the technology can render sound from multiple directions — including from the front, back, left, right, above and below — to create a sense of spatial depth and presence within the scene being watched. In a concert video for instance, Eclipsa Audio presents the artist’s performance in crystal-clear detail while also capturing the energy of the audience, making the viewer feel as if they are physically there.

Designed for Optimal 3D Audio in Everyday Life

Among the growing range of technologies enhancing 3D sound — including surround sound, immersive audio and spatial audio — Eclipsa Audio was specifically designed to provide a 3D audio experience optimized for everyday listening.

Traditionally, 3D audio content is created with the assumption that it will be played in environments equipped with multiple surround speakers. However, most home entertainment setups primarily consist of a TV and a soundbar — making it challenging to accurately replicate the content creator’s intended spatial audio effects. Eclipsa Audio overcomes this limitation by automatically analyzing sound elements in each segment of a film — from whispered dialogue to the roar of fighter jets in the background — and delivering a dynamic 3D audio effect fine-tuned for the viewer’s home environment.

Building a 3D Audio Ecosystem With Open-Source Technology

Eclipsa Audio’s open-source framework sets it apart from other 3D audio technologies by allowing anyone to create 3D audio content without paying royalties. Following its debut at CES 2025, the technology has been met with enthusiasm from content creators and has gained momentum across media platforms and online communities.

In this way, Eclipsa Audio serves as an open vessel in which content creators can integrate 3D audio elements from all directions without restrictions. By democratizing spatial audio, Eclipsa Audio empowers content creators and ensures that consumers experience sound as intended — regardless of their audio setup.

Eclipsa Audio on Samsung TVs

Eclipsa Audio’s immersive 3D sound performs at its best when paired with exceptional hardware. To make that peak performance a reality, Samsung and Google have worked tirelessly to provide consumers with Eclipsa Audio-supported 3D audio content — soon to be available via the YouTube app on Samsung’s latest TVs. Eclipsa Audio is set to roll out across the company’s entire 2025 TV lineup from the Crystal UHD series to the premium flagship Neo QLED 8K models.¹

Most Samsung TVs are equipped with stereo speakers at the bottom of the screen, and for QLED 4K models and above, additional speakers are positioned at the top. Flagship models, though, come with extra benefits. Besides surround speakers added to the rear of the sides, their top-positioned speakers are specially designed for height perception. Eclipsa Audio reflects sound off the ceiling with these special speakers, creating an effect that allows viewers to experience upward-directional audio — such as the sensation of an object flying overhead. Pairing the TV with a soundbar further enhances the experience, producing richer and more expansive 3D spatial audio.

Eclipsa Audio has established the foundation for a 3D audio content ecosystem by bringing industry leaders — from device manufacturers to content platforms — together under a unified standard. In an era where streaming services blur the line between content creation and consumption, Eclipsa Audio unlocks new possibilities for immersive sound that Samsung is determined to further expand.

¹ Rollout schedule and service details may vary depending on the TV model.

Following the first 6G white paper “The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All.” in July 2020, this white paper covers the latest trends driving 6G standardization and next-generation mobile communications — including evolving market and technology needs, emerging services, key attributes of 6G and enabling technologies.

Samsung aims to integrate the latest AI technology throughout the telecommunication system and improve network quality for a future-oriented and sustainable user experience.

“We are intensifying our 6G research efforts, focusing on AI-enabled communication technologies and sustainable networks,” said Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President of Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC), Samsung Research. “As the telecommunication industry accelerates 6G standardization this year, Samsung will develop technologies to align with market demands.”

Market and Technology Trends Toward 6G

Mobile data traffic has surged, driven by the proliferation of AI technologies and the rise of streaming services. Now more than ever, there is a pressing need for technological advancements to manage increased data traffic and enhance user experiences in next-generation mobile communications.

Since the introduction of 5G, the telecommunications industry has been particularly focused on optimizing system operations, sustainability and user experiences. Beyond communication performance improvements such as data rates and latency, there is an urgency to reduce operating costs, enhance energy efficiency, expand service coverage and introduce innovative technologies such as AI.

Emerging Services

5G-Advanced will provide further enhanced 5G performance and incorporate AI to support new services and use cases — ultimately becoming the foundation for 6G technology.

In this white paper, some key emerging services such as immersive extended reality (XR), digital twin, massive communication, ubiquitous connectivity and fixed wireless access (FWA) are highlighted.

6G Key Attributes

In the white paper, Samsung highlighted four key attributes crucial to adapting to evolving market demands — AI-native, sustainable network, ubiquitous coverage and secure and resilient network.

6G Timeline

With the release of this white paper, Samsung solidifies its leadership in shaping the direction of 6G research and key technologies.

The telecommunications industry and standardization organizations have been researching 6G since 2020. In 2030, the 6G technology standards are expected to be finalized — following candidate technology development, evaluation and consensus-building processes. With the recent timelines from the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)¹ and 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP),² momentum for 6G research and development is expected to intensify.

Samsung will continue to lead global standardization efforts and prepare for the 6G era while incorporating lessons learned from 5G commercialization and adapting to new market requirements.

Last November, Samsung held the Silicon Valley Future Wireless Summit and hosted an in-depth discussion with industry experts on the convergence of telecommunications and AI technologies. The company demonstrated AI-RAN technologies and Proof of Concept (PoC) results, showcasing the possibilities of AI-native technologies and garnering significant interest from major telecommunications operators.

¹ ITU is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies with memberships of 193 Member States and more than 1,000 companies, universities, research institutes and international and regional organizations. The ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is responsible for regulating and standardizing global radio communication.
² 3GPP is dedicated to developing the global unified technical specifications for mobile communications.

Samsung Electronics is accelerating preparations for future communications by integrating AI technology into the entire Radio Access Network (RAN), from radio units (responsible for conversion between analog and digital signals at base stations, antennas, etc.) and digital units (including modems for digital signal modulation and demodulation, schedulers for resource allocation, etc.) to system operation, thereby advancing the convergence of telecommunications and AI technologies.

In mobile communication networks, RAN, which connects mobile phones to the core network, is a critical component that determines user experience in terms of transmission speed and communication quality. As RAN accounts for the largest share of energy usage among the entire communication network, including core networks and data centers, the need for energy-saving technology is also high.

Samsung is conducting research on AI-RAN technology, which integrates AI technology into RAN. In particular, at the Silicon Valley Future Wireless Summit held last November, AI-RAN technologies were demonstrated in collaboration with industry partners, showcasing capabilities to improve base station data throughput (i.e., the amount of data successfully transmitted by a base station over a certain period), communication coverage (i.e., the geographical range where communication services provided by a base station are available) and energy efficiency, among others.

One example is to utilize AI technology to improve the performance of channel estimation technology for estimating the state of wireless channels where data is transmitted between base stations and mobile phones. The result showed that the downlink data throughput from the base station to the mobile phone and the uplink data throughput from the mobile phone to the base station were significantly improved compared to 5G RAN.

In addition, it was shown that energy efficiency was enhanced by applying power adaptively according to the strength of transmitted signals.

These industry-first demonstrations shown to telecommunications operators with Proof of Concept (PoC) results applying AI across the entire RAN have identified AI’s potential to significantly enhance communication performance, user experience and energy efficiency in future communication networks.

“We thank our partners for collaboration on these ground-breaking AI wireless innovations,” said Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President at Samsung Research America (SRA) and Head of the 6G Research Team at Samsung Research. “Samsung Electronics will continue to work with our ecosystem partners to lead innovation in making AI-RAN a reality in the coming years.”

Leaders from major global wireless operators were very pleased with the promising results of integrating the latest AI technology into the design of future RAN and appreciated Samsung’s efforts in leading the industry efforts on the AI-Native wireless technology.

Additionally, leaders from Samsung’s global partners, who were also collaborators for these demonstrations, were thrilled to be part of the collective effort in leading the way toward an AI-Native next generation network and shared their vision on how AI can help shape the future of wireless communications.

The successful demos are widely recognized as a promising starting point of industry collaboration to bring AI-Native Wireless to future radio access networks. Samsung plans to build on the innovation momentum and continue to work with partners in the ecosystem through industry associations such as AI-RAN Alliance, where Samsung is a founding member, to enhance user experiences by making the promise of AI in RAN a reality.

• Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, President, CTO of the Device eXperience (DX) Division and Head of Samsung Research
• Younsun Kim, Master at Samsung Research
• Timothy Hospedales, Head of Samsung Research’s Europe AI Center
• Michael Scott Brown, Head of Samsung Research’s AI Center in Toronto
• Yuri Masuoka, Fellow and Head of the SRAM Lab in the Foundry Business of the Device Solutions (DS) Division

The title of ‘IEEE Fellow’ is the highest membership grade and, following a thorough review process, is granted annually to the top 0.1% of IEEE members who have demonstrated significant contributions to societal advancement. Those with at least ten years of experience in their fields are chosen based on seven evaluation criteria, including outstanding research and development achievements, contributions to the industry and expertise in the field.

Achievements in Telecommunications and Standardization of 5G Mobile Communication

▲ President Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun (left) and Master Younsun Kim (right)

Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun was appointed as a Fellow in recognition of his leadership in 5G and virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) technologies.

Having joined Samsung Electronics in 2012 and serving as head of the Network Business Division, Cheun is a telecommunications technology expert who has led the development of core technologies and commercial solutions for 5G. He has contributed to the global network business by successfully commercializing the world’s first 5G mobile communication technology.

“Being appointed as an IEEE Fellow is an honor,” said President Cheun. “Samsung Electronics will dedicate itself more to innovative technology research and development that will lead the future, taking the initiative in technological advancements that add value and provide convenience and enrichment to people’s daily lives.”

Younsun Kim received IEEE recognition for contributions and leadership in 5G physical layer standardization. He has served as both the vice chair and chair of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) for the past seven years, and is currently preparing for 6G RAN standardization which will be fully launched starting from next year.

Newly Elevated Fellows in Machine Learning, Cameras and Foundry

▲ (From left) Timothy Hospedales, Michael Scott Brown and Yuri Masuoka

Timothy Hospedales received Fellowship honors for his contributions to data-efficient machine learning and meta-learning. Hospedales, who joined Samsung Electronics in 2019, is a machine learning and data intelligence expert. Currently, he oversees Samsung Research’s overall research and development of AI across Europe at the AI Center located in Cambridge, U.K..

Michael Scott Brown contributed to in-camera color image processing to a degree that led to the IEEE naming him a Fellow. Brown, joined Samsung Electronics in 2019 and is an expert in computer vision, currently overseeing research and development at the AI Center in Toronto.

Yuri Masuoka was also named to the IEEE Fellow Class of 2025 for her contributions to leading-edge foundry transistor development.

Samsung Electronics has previously had several IEEE Fellows in various fields, including Executive Vice President Sunghyun Choi of the Network Business, Fellow Juho Lee of Samsung Research and Senior Vice President Charlie Zhang of Samsung Research.

¹ The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the largest professional organization dedicated to the advancement of technology related to electricity, electronics, computing, and telecommunications. With over 460,000 members from more than 190 countries, IEEE actively manages over 2,250 ongoing projects.

Recognizing Achievement in Telecommunications Technology

Zhang was acknowledged with the Industrial Innovation Award by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc). Recipients were recognized at an award ceremony on December 9 at the 2024 IEEE Global Communications (GLOBECOM) conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

An expert in mobile communications technology, Zhang was recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to the development and standardization of Massive MIMO systems — a technology crucial to network coverage and capacity. Introduced in 2009, the Industrial Innovation Award was presented for the first time in five years.

From 2009 to 2013, Zhang served as vice chair of the Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) — a global mobile communications standardization organization — during which he led the standard development of LTE and LTE-Advanced technologies. In 2015, he was named an IEEE Fellow — the highest honor for IEEE members. Currently, Zhang leads Samsung Electronics’ global 6G strategy and technology innovation efforts at Samsung Research.

“As a researcher in the field of telecommunications, I am honored to receive this meaningful award,” said Zhang. “We will continue to research and develop innovative telecommunications technologies for a better user experience.”

A Legacy of Excellence at IEEE ComSoc Awards

Founded in 1963, IEEE is the world’s largest organization of technical professionals in the fields of electronics, communications and computers — with over 460,000 members in more than 190 countries. The IEEE ComSoc annually recognizes individuals who have demonstrated excellence in leadership and made significant advances in information and communications through a rigorous selection process.

Samsung has a history of being recognized for its outstanding achievements at the IEEE ComSoc Career Awards — a reflection of the company’s contributions to the standardization of communication technology and the development of mobile phones.

Former Samsung Vice Chairman Ki-tae Lee, who played a pivotal role in developing Samsung’s Anycall mobile phone series, received the IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Industry Leader Award in 2004. Former Samsung Vice Chairman Jong-kyun Shin, who played a key role in developing the world’s first color phone, received the same award in 2016. More recently, Samsung Research Fellow Juho Lee, who successfully helped lead 4G and 5G standardization, received the IEEE ComSoc Excellence in Supporting Standardization for Communications Award in 2023.

Continuing Next-Generation Communication Research

Samsung is working to standardize and integrate AI technology in next-generation communication.

The company currently holds two chairmanships and four vice chairmanships within 3GPP. This year, the company further engaged in standardization activities by adding a chair to the Radio Communication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R), a United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICT).

Samsung is a founding member of the AI-RAN Alliance, a global organization dedicated to advancing telecommunications technology. Recently, the company has also been reappointed as vice chair of the Next G Alliance — an initiative dedicated to advancing North American wireless technology leadership — further strengthening its leadership in the convergence of AI and wireless communication technologies.

As AI technology expands across various industries and 6G communication becomes in earnest standardized, this collaboration aims to utilize the two companies’ extensive technical expertise and business knowledge to accelerate AI research in communications.

The partnership will not only improve network quality but also establish a foundation for the market’s transition into the 6G era.

The technology under research and development by both companies is poised to significantly enhance service quality for users and network operational efficiency for service providers.

Currently, communication quality optimization is conducted at the cell site level of mobile communication base stations. Moving forward, the goal is to achieve user-level optimization through the application of AI. For example, users entering areas between cell boundaries or areas with weak signals will be able to stream videos without interruptions and access more stable communication services.

“I believe this technological cooperation between the two companies will speed up AI-powered innovation in the telecom industry, and it will realize the common vision for future communications such as 6G,” said Takaaki Sato, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NTT DOCOMO.

“The joint research with NTT DOCOMO will play an integral role in developing AI technology for communication systems,” said Paul (Kyungwhoon) Cheun, President, Chief Technology Officer at Samsung Electronics and Head of Samsung Research. “By merging the technical capabilities and expertise of both companies, we will create synergy for next-generation communication technologies.”

Samsung and NTT DOCOMO have a long history of collaboration in mobile communication technology standardization within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).¹ The companies intend to leverage this joint technology research as an opportunity to deepen their cooperation and continue to work together for the advancement of future communication technologies.

¹ 3GPP is dedicated to developing the global unified technical specifications for mobile communications.

Samsung Health Research Stack is Samsung Electronics’ open-source project that supports digital health researches using mobile and wearable devices in Android and Wear OS environments. The platform provides IT developers and medical researchers with a software environment to conveniently and safely plan services using relevant data.

Because clinical research requires apps and services that continuously measure, share and analyze health-related data from users’ daily lives, Samsung Health Research Stack aims to help researchers implement the features they want.

Following the launch of Samsung Health Stack Alpha in 2022 and Samsung Health Stack 1.0 in 2023, Samsung has announced the latest version with Samsung Health Research Stack 2.0 Beta. The open-source project has rebranded to Samsung Health Research Stack, emphasizing support for the research ecosystem as part of the newly launched Samsung Health SDK Suite — a comprehensive package of software development tools for healthcare solutions.

New Features Help Researchers With Their Studies

Samsung Health Research Stack promotes more efficient digital health research. Features include an app SDK for easy application creation, a back-end service that manages data collected by the app and a web portal to assist with research design and data analysis. In response to feedback from researchers, the latest version includes more convenient features.

The app SDK is a development tool that reduces the cost and time required to develop applications for digital health — and now supports the development of both mobile apps for research and smartwatch apps that utilize wearable sensor data. Notably, enhanced support for the Sensor SDK allows researchers to create watch apps that measure and utilize electrocardiogram, blood oxygen level and body composition data from the innovative Galaxy Watch¹ sensors. The new Data SDK integration helps researchers create applications that use sleep data from the Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Ring.

Moreover, performance and usability improvements have been made to the back-end service and web portal. The back-end architecture has been reinforced to handle data from large clinical trials with added features to manage studies. The web portal helps with the research process from patient recruitment and surveys to progress management and data analysis.

Driving Results Around the World With Introduction at SDC24

Samsung Health Research Stack is open to any company or medical institution in the digital healthcare space developing solutions that utilize wearable devices and biomarkers.

Samsung Health Research Stack will be showcased at the Samsung Developer Conference 2024 (SDC24) on October 3 in San Jose, California. Developers can join a Code Lab session during the event to experience the latest features firsthand.

“Samsung Health Research Stack is already being used in multiple domestic and international clinical studies that utilize Galaxy Watch,” said Yunsu Lee, Head of the Data Intelligence Team, Samsung Research. “With our innovative wearable technology, we aim to contribute to expanding the digital health ecosystem and serve as a valuable partner to IT and medical professionals in achieving research breakthroughs.”

The latest version of Samsung Health Research Stack is available on the Samsung Developer website and GitHub.

¹ Available on Galaxy Watch 4 or later models equipped with Wear OS. Data supported may vary depending on sensor type and model.

Samsung formed Team Atlanta — comprised of more than 30 security researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, New York University (NYU), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) as well as Samsung Research, a leading research and development organization within Samsung.

▲ Team Atlanta members pose for a photo.

AIxCC participants compete to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities in large-scale software systems using AI. With a total prize pool of over $20 million, the competition aims to promote the development of new technologies to improve computer code security for social infrastructure systems including transportation, public utilities and healthcare.

The competition is held in conjunction with DEF CON, an annual cybersecurity and hacking conference in Las Vegas. Following the announcement of AIxCC in August 2023, Team Atlanta developed and submitted their cyber reasoning system — before advancing through the semifinals at DEF CON 32 from August 9 to 11, 2024. Securing $2 million in research funds, Team Atlanta will attend the final round at DEF CON 33 in August 2025.

During the semifinal round, Team Atlanta demonstrated its ability to automatically detect security vulnerabilities in large-scale software and apply security patches using their system. Team Atlanta earned significant recognition from organizers as it was the only team out of 39 to discover a genuine vulnerability — not a flaw that had been set up for the competition.

“We will thoroughly prepare for the upcoming final round by diversifying applications of AI and researching programming languages and countermeasures against vulnerabilities,” said Taesoo Kim, Vice President of Samsung Research, who led Team Atlanta.

▲ AIxCC finalists

As cyberattacks become more frequent and complex, the importance of AI technology in security is becoming increasingly evident. By learning from vast amounts of data, AI can analyze and infer from new data to anticipate and respond to security threats. Generative AI, in particular, improves efficiency in the security sector by better understanding software programs and more effectively addressing security threats. As such, the application of AI in security has become a necessity.

Samsung will continue leveraging AI to improve security. Through ongoing research on AI technology that detects vulnerabilities and automates security patches, the company plans to strengthen its competitive edge by increasing product and service reliability.

Samsung Electronics today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Oxford Semantic Technologies, a UK startup specializing in knowledge graph technology.

Established in 2017 by three Oxford University professors — Ian Horrocks, Boris Motik and Bernardo Cuenca Grau — Oxford Semantic Technologies holds cutting-edge technological capabilities in the areas of knowledge representation and semantic reasoning. With its AI-centric engine, RDFox®, the company currently collaborates with organizations across Europe and North America involved in the finance, manufacturing and e-commerce sectors.

Knowledge graph technology stores information as an interconnected web of related ideas and process data in a manner similar to how humans acquire, remember, recall and reason over knowledge. By integrating and connecting data, this technology enhances the understanding of how people use a product or service and enables rapid information retrieval and recommendation. As such, it is considered one of the key technologies for realizing more sophisticated and personalized AI solutions.

Knowledge graph technology is challenging to implement due to the complex computations used in the process of converting dynamic and extensive real-world data into knowledge graphs and utilizing them. However, Oxford Semantic Technologies has developed and successfully commercialized knowledge graph technology that optimizes data processing and enables advanced reasoning, in the cloud and on-device.

Samsung Electronics has been collaborating with Oxford Semantic Technologies on various projects since 2018, including investment of Samsung Ventures. With this acquisition, Samsung will secure advanced core engines for personal knowledge graphs. These graphs integrate information and context dispersed across various services and apps, crafting a user experience that is tailor-made by becoming increasingly familiar with users’ preferences and usage.

Combined with on-device AI technology, such as that on Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series, personal knowledge graph technology facilitates hyper-personalized user experiences while ensuring sensitive personal data remains secure on the device. It will be applicable across all of Samsung’s products, extending beyond just mobile devices to televisions and home appliances.

“We are delighted to be working with Samsung,” said Peter Crocker, CEO of Oxford Semantic Technologies. “By integrating Samsung’s expertise in user experience and data with our advanced knowledge graph and reasoning technology, we will provide Samsung’s customers with even more sophisticated personalization. In addition, developing RDFox with Samsung, and being part of the larger group, will provide all of our clients with an even better product, service and support.”

“As global consumers realize their growing need for more personalized AI experiences, the acquisition of Oxford Semantic Technologies will further boost Samsung’s strong capabilities in knowledge engineering,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Head of Samsung Research and CTO of Samsung Electronics. “This acquisition is another important step forward as we strive to deliver tailor-made AI experiences built upon our hallmark technological innovation.”

About Oxford Semantic Technologies Ltd.
Oxford Semantic Technologies is a spin out of the University of Oxford by leading academics in the field of knowledge representation and reasoning. With its innovative software RDFox®, the company helps leading companies across many sectors to integrate diverse data sets and apply reasoning across them. Use cases include recommendation engines, product configurators, integration of maps for autonomous vehicles and anomaly detection in financial transactions. For more information, please visit www.oxfordsemantic.tech.

Researcher HyoungJin Choi from Samsung Research was named chair of the Coordination Group on IMT-2030 (6G) at the ITU-R Working Party 5D (WP 5D) meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland from June 25 to July 2. It will be Choi’s second time chairing a group at the ITU-R involved in 6G standardization as he had previously led the 6G Vision Group from 2021 to 2023.

The Coordination Group will be responsible for defining the process for developing 6G technology standards as well as creating the submission template for candidate 6G technologies and reviewing candidate proposals.

The standardization of next-generation communications involves a highly competitive and collaborative process among different stakeholders.

In November 2023, the ITU-R released the IMT-2030 Framework Recommendation, outlining the future and general direction of 6G. By 2026, the ITU-R aims to establish the technical performance requirements of 6G technologies. These requirements will serve as the foundation for candidate 6G technologies to be developed by standards organizations like the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)² and later submitted to the ITU-R. The ITU-R will then evaluate and coordinate the submissions, with technical specifications for 6G expected to be finalized by 2030.

With the IMT-2030 Framework Recommendation providing key performance indicators, usage scenarios and a roadmap for the standardization, spectrum and commercialization of 6G, the industry is now poised to embark on detailed standardization efforts. Moving forward, countries and companies will vie for leadership in setting 6G communications standards, including performance requirements and frequency bands.

Samsung will actively engage with influential standards organizations and continue developing innovative communications technologies en route to reinforcing its position as a global leader in 6G standardization.

¹ The ITU is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICT) with memberships of 193 Member States and more than 1000 companies, universities, research institutes and international and regional organizations. The ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is responsible for regulating and standardizing global radio communication.
² 3GPP is dedicated to developing the global unified technical specifications for mobile communications.

To develop the Energy Score feature, Samsung Research² collaborated with Professor Patrick O’Connor from the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology at the University of Georgia, USA.

Samsung Newsroom explored the new Energy Score — designed to enhance the digital healthcare experience.

Energy is closely related to everyday efficiency and fatigue, and based on imperfectly understood neural circuit activity in the brain. As a result, objectively quantifying energy is not easy. Samsung Research and Professor O’Connor’s team joined forces to define and calculate an individual’s energy based on the available science.

A leading expert in exercise psychology, Professor O’Connor has extensively studied the effects of sleep, physical activity and caffeine intake on cognition and feelings of energy. He advised on the development of the Energy Score feature on Samsung Health, combining physical activity with neuroscience data and theory to suggest the concept of “Overall Capacity.”

While most existing services focus solely on physical aspects when measuring energy, Overall Capacity considers both physical and cognitive factors. Mental stressors can affect energy levels, as evidenced by disrupted sleep patterns and increased fatigue when stressed.

Essentially, energy reflects the amount of activity one can sustain relative to their total capacity. Exceeding one’s usual physical or mental load reduces energy in the short term. For example, if someone typically exercises at a low intensity for 30 minutes daily — but decides to engage in moderate-intensity exercise for an hour one day — their Energy Score is expected to drop the following day.

Regular exercise can improve Overall Capacity, potentially resulting in a higher Energy Score for the same workout intensity over time.

▲ Physical and cognitive loads that exceed average levels lead to reduced energy. However, regular exercise can increase energy or help maintain it at a higher average level.

Energy Score is calculated based on physical activity levels, sleep quality, heart rate during sleep and heart rate variability during sleep as measured by wearable devices. Samsung Research developed the Energy Score feature based on scientific studies and clinical research that studied the correlation between these indicators and cognitive, self-reported and physical markers of energy.

“Activity” can influence physical capacity. One can predict their energy for the day by comparing workout data from the previous day against their typical activity levels. This method employs the Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio concept that anticipates fatigue by assessing both long-term and short-term workload.

“Sleep” is primarily associated with mental capacity. Sleep patterns like average sleep duration over seven days, consistency of sleep and wake times and how quickly one falls asleep are analyzed and integrated into one’s Energy Score. This method follows the “energy reservoir” model — which explores the connections between sleep, fatigue and cognitive function, to calculate fluctuations in energy based on sleep duration and circadian rhythms.

“Sleeping Heart Rate” and “Sleeping Heart Rate Variability” are linked to both physical and mental capacities. Energy is forecast by comparing recent measurements to past long-term data trends. Predictions are more accurate when heart rate during sleep and heart rate variability during sleep data are both analyzed during a stable state of sleep.

▲ Indicators used to calculate the Energy Score. Activity and sleep are primarily associated with physical and mental capacity, respectively, while sleeping heart rate and sleeping heart rate variability are known to be associated with both.

Samsung Research took age and gender into account in determining how much weight each factor should have on one’s Energy Score. Furthermore, Professor O’Connor’s research team conducted experiments involving cognitive tests and self-reports of energy and fatigue symptoms, finding a significant correlation between the Energy Score generated by Samsung’s models and clinical data collected by the University of Georgia’s researchers.

Samsung Health’s Energy Score goes beyond simple numerical values. The figure offers health guidance and suggestions based on seven key factors affecting the score including average sleep duration and physical activity from the previous day.

To achieve this, Samsung Research combined its energy score model with optimization AI and generative AI technologies. Optimization AI first pinpoints key influences on the score and analyzes current energy levels along with recent lifestyle changes to suggest potential improvements. On-device generative AI then crafts these insights into friendly messages while upholding user privacy.

The health guidance provided gives users an understanding of their current Energy Score and science-based suggestions to manage appropriate levels of activity and rest for the day. By paying more attention to the factors that affect their daily Energy Score, users can go on to improve their lifestyle habits.

▲ Energy Score provides users with personalized health guidance via friendly, AI-generated messages

Professor O’Connor conducted extensive research in collaboration with Samsung developers, striving to enhance the reliability and validity of the Energy Score.

“From a scientific perspective, the Energy Score reflects predicted variation in the ability to perform brief cognitive tests of attention across the day based on objective information obtained from smart device sensors during the past week,” he explained.

“Through our collaboration with Professor O’Connor, we were able to address this challenge in a scientifically meaningful way,” said Yunsu Lee, Head of the Data Intelligence Team at Samsung Research. “We will continue to develop data and AI technologies to ensure that Samsung’s various devices are used more widely to enhance users’ lives.”

¹ Only for general health management and fitness purposes. Service availability may vary by country.
² The advanced research and development organization in Samsung Electronics’ DX (Device eXperience) division

As part of the collaboration, Samsung Research plans to launch an open-source project with Arm to jointly develop and refine parallel packet processing technology.

Since this technology processes vast quantities of communication data, Samsung’s work with Arm aims to significantly accelerate the research and development timeline ahead of the surge of data driven by 6G environments.

With the growth of data in the next-generation communication, parallel packet processing technology can contribute to the establishment of flexible and efficient communication systems.

“In 6G communications, the importance of software technology is increasing. Innovation is crucial in handling the massive amounts of data that result from this,” said Jinguk Jeong, Executive Vice President at Samsung Research’s Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC). “This technical partnership with Arm is a significant step towards revolutionizing parallel technology.”

“AI is fueling the demand for next-generation technologies like 6G, but the insatiable amount of data creates a vital need for power-efficient processing,” said Mohamed Awad, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Infrastructure Line of Business, Arm. “We are leveraging our expertise in high-performance, low-power and flexible computing by collaborating with Samsung Research to accelerate the 6G software development and enable the AI infrastructure to run as efficiently as possible.”

Established in May 2019, Samsung Research’s ACRC is dedicated to leading the charge in developing next-generation communication technologies, actively engaging in standardization efforts, researching 6G technologies and enhancing advanced communication software solutions such as parallel packet processing and AI.

▲ Juho Lee, a fellow at Samsung Research, won the Excellence in Supporting Standardization for Communications Award from IEEE ComSoc at the GLOBECOM 2023 conference on December 5.

Juho Lee, a fellow at Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub Samsung Research (SR), received a Career Award for his outstanding leadership and technical contributions in standardization of wireless communication from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) — the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

In recognition of his leadership and pivotal role in the development and standardization of global mobile communication technologies, Lee won the inaugural Excellence in Supporting Standardization for Communications Award established this year by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc). Lee was the sole recipient of the award, honoring his outstanding contributions to the industry.

The winners of IEEE ComSoc Career Awards are selected through a rigorous judging process, with 14 judges deliberating over candidates for two months. Recipients were recognized at an award ceremony on December 5 at the 2023 IEEE Global Communications (GLOBECOM) conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Lee has been leading research and standardization of mobile communication technology since 2000 when the commercialization of 3G smartphones began. From February 2003 to August 2009, Lee served as vice chair of the Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) at the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) — a global mobile communications standardization organization — where he contributed to the standardization of 4G LTE technology. In 2018, Lee was elected as an IEEE Fellow, a distinction reserved for top IEEE members who have accomplished extraordinary achievements.

“It is an honor to be named the first winner of the IEEE ComSoc Excellence in Supporting Standardization for Communications Award,” he said. “Going forward, I will continue to research, develop and standardize advanced mobile communications technologies such as 5G and 6G technology.”

Lee joins the prestigious ranks of previous Samsung executives who have also been recipients of IEEE ComSoc Career Awards. Former Samsung Vice Chairman Ki-Tae Lee, who played an instrumental role in the development of Samsung’s Anycall mobile phone series, was awarded the IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Industry Leader Award in 2004. Former Samsung Vice Chairman Jong-Kyun Shin, who made the world’s first color phone, received the same award in 2016.

A leader in mobile communication technology standardization, Samsung Research holds a total of six officials in the 3GPP: two chairs and four vice chairs. In July 2020, Samsung published “The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All,” a 6G white paper outlining the company’s vision for the next era of communication. Samsung and Samsung Research’s experts are vigorously working to realize the commercialization of 6G around 2030.

Put simply, 3D audio makes listeners feel as if they’re really in the middle of the action. Typically only supported at specific venues such as movie theaters or recording studios, 3D audio is making its way into homes to give viewers a new way to experience their favorite content.

Samsung Electronics’ advanced research institute Samsung Research has been striving to popularize 3D audio since 2020. To this end, Samsung worked with Google to jointly develop Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) — an advanced 3D spatial audio technology that was adopted by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM)¹ in October 2023. Samsung Newsroom sat down with the team that developed IAMF to hear the story of how the technology came to life.

▲ The Visual Technology Team at Samsung Research led the development of a standard for audio technology. (From left) SungHee Hwang, JeongHoon Park and WooHyun Nam

A New Way To Enjoy 3D Audio at Home

Ambient noise exists everywhere — from the sound of shoes scraping on the sidewalk to the gentle hum of cars driving down the road. While this noise may seem unnecessary in media, it’s vital in adding depth and a sense of realness. 3D audio works to seamlessly blend ambient noise with conversations and other sound effects to create a more vibrant and authentic entertainment experience.

“3D audio makes you feel as if you’re really in the heart of the action by adjusting the strength, movement and vibrance of the sound,” said WooHyun Nam from the Visual Technology Team at Samsung Research. “In this way, viewers are able to enjoy a more full-bodied sound that captures the 3D aspects of the world around us.”

▲ SungHee Hwang from Samsung Research’s Visual Technology Team

Despite the advantages of 3D audio, it has been difficult to apply the technology to home audio devices due to technological limitations. “3D sound information from content cannot be interpreted properly by home audio systems such as TV speakers or sound bars, resulting in a slightly limited audio experience that lacks detail from the original content,” said SungHee Hwang from the Visual Technology Team at Samsung Research.

To resolve this, Samsung worked diligently with Google to develop an audio solution that would allow viewers to experience content audio as intended. “If the 3D audio data can be read by device manufacturers, they can adjust the sound in audio devices — allowing for immersive audio experiences with standard TV speakers or sound bars at home,” said Nam. “By adjusting the audio to match the home device environment, listeners can experience audio just as the creator intended without any distortions or loss in quality.”

A uniform standard is required to send and receive audio data smoothly between creators and device manufacturers. “Samsung and Google’s respective expertise in devices and content made the companies ideal partners to create IAMF technology,” said JeongHoon Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Visual Technology Team at Samsung Research. “By coming together to develop this unprecedented technology, we are paving the way for consumers to enjoy 3D audio in their homes.”

Three Characteristics of IAMF Technology: Vertical Audio, AI-Based Audio and Customized Audio

IAMF technology offers three distinct features that enhance the audio experience.

▲ WooHyun Nam from Samsung Research’s Visual Technology Team

1. Ability To Express Sound Vertically

Previous open-source audio codecs only supported horizontal sound expression. With IAMF technology, audio can now be expressed vertically so that sound is increasingly multi-directional. “IAMF makes sound more realistic, by allowing listeners to hear audio in front, behind or to either side and also above or below them,” said Nam. “As such, when IAMF technology is applied to home TV speakers and sound bars, it allows listeners to hear sounds such as birds flying over their head on their TVs at home.”

2. AI-Based Scene Analysis and 3D Audio Effects

IAMF utilizes AI and deep-learning technology to analyze scenes and emphasize certain aspects of the content — adjusting audio levels for more enhanced sound throughout the viewing experience. “In TV and film, there are certain scenes where the soundtrack or background music is the main focus,” said Nam. “IAMF will balance the sound in these instances. Similarly, the technology will fine-tune audio when there is character dialogue to allow the listener to focus on the conversation.”

In addition, IAMF technology provides optimal sound despite changes in the device environment. “By adjusting the scene analysis audio data according to the device environment, IAMF technology enables listeners to enjoy the content’s original sound quality on standard home TVs,” Hwang added.

3. Highly Customized Audio

Users will be able to freely adjust sound according to their preferences with IAMF technology. Whether viewers are looking to amplify sound effects from an action scene or enhance dialogue, IAMF gives them the flexibility to customize content audio for a more personalized experience.

▲ IAMF analyzes data from content and allows viewers to adjust and customize audio settings. When watching a sports game, users can directly choose whether to emphasize the commentator’s voice or the sounds of the game itself.

3D Audio Across the Industry With Open-Source IAMF

Open source is crucial to creating a unified standard across the industry. IAMF is the first open source-based audio technology standard adopted by AOM — meaning both corporate and independent content creators across the industry can access the technology and expand its use.

“In order to allow people to freely create content with 3D audio technology, related technology needs to be open to all,” said Nam. “Providing a complete open-source framework for 3D audio, from creation to delivery and playback, will allow for even more diverse audio content experiences in the future.”

Similarly, Park highlighted how IAMF technology will have a large impact on the audio landscape moving forward. “Because we live in an era dominated by content creation, IAMF will help lead, expand and transform the 3D audio ecosystem,” he said.

Success Accomplished Through Cooperation

Research on IAMF began in 2020 and took nearly four years to complete. Through a combination of perseverance and hard work, the team was able to achieve success.

“The project involved many days of nonstop work, and there were times when we needed to work at night due to the time difference between our office and Google’s,” said Hwang. “Despite these challenges, I was proud in the end. It was a great opportunity to work with developers from other countries.”

The teams developed a sense of camaraderie along the way and built a solid foundation of trust and understanding. “A Google employee mentioned how this partnership with Samsung has been the most enjoyable collaboration he had completed so far,” Park recalled. “We were able to accomplish this project because our teams trusted each other. I’m very proud of and thankful for our team members’ efforts and their cooperation.”

▲ JeongHoon Park, Corporate EVP and Head of the Visual Technology Team at Samsung Research

Additionally, Park praised each team member’s unique skills and expertise which helped contribute to the creation of IAMF. “WooHyun Nam was instrumental in proposing the technology development ideas while SungHee Hwang organized and documented our team’s ideas in a clear-cut manner,” he said.

A Vision for ‘Samsung Sound’

Upon its release, the Samsung Research team realized that the standardization of 3D spatial audio marked a new era of sound technology.

“Thanks to IAMF, we can begin researching technologies that will open up a world of audio possibilities,” said Nam. In line with this, the Samsung Research team is currently developing an advanced version of IAMF technology that can be applied to different sectors such as mobile devices, the metaverse, video games and more.

▲ With their combined efforts and unrelenting persistence, the Visual Technology Team at Samsung Research was able to successfully create a new standard for 3D audio.

Given the success of IAMF, the Samsung Research team is motivated to create better audio technology for consumers. Each of the team members shared their aspirations for the future of 3D audio.

Nam touched on his desire to create audio technology that is more immersive. “I want to create a more advanced 3D audio technology that makes users feel like they are truly in the scene of a movie, TV show or live event,” he said. “I also hope to continue this research until 3D audio is applied to Samsung’s smartphones.”

More broadly, Hwang discussed how he hopes Samsung will be able to create unrivaled audio technology that will place it among the ranks of other leading audio companies. “My goal is to develop a technology that consumers will be able to easily distinguish as ‘Samsung Sound’ when they hear it,” he said. “I am optimistic that the IAMF standard is a stepping stone toward this dream.”

“My hope is that Samsung’s sound technology will enable consumers to enjoy an upgraded audio experience that is on par with that of current visual experiences,” said Park. “I hope that content creators will utilize Samsung’s audio technology to make 3D audio content accessible. Additionally, we aim to create a supportive environment that enables researchers to take on bold and exciting challenges such as expanding Samsung’s audio technology.”

Technological standards such as IAMF will make entertainment more immersive for viewers across the board. The Samsung Research team is paving the way for innovations that will change the future of audio.

¹ A non-profit industry consortium formed to develop and share technology for multimedia delivery, allowing creators to utilize the technology without worrying about cost. It is operated by an alliance of 38 companies including Samsung Electronics, Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta.

▲ (From left to right) Kyeongin Jeong, Jaeyeon Song and Narendranath Durga Tangudu appointed vice chairs in 3GPP.

Samsung Electronics announced that three Samsung researchers have been elected vice chairs in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the world’s largest telecommunications standard development organization. Following the appointment, the company now holds a total of seven officials in 3GPP — two chairs and five vice chairs.

Since its establishment in 1998, 3GPP has united telecommunication companies and organizations around the world, including Samsung, Qualcomm, Apple, Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and more.

Newly-elected researcher Kyeongin Jeong from Samsung Research America, Samsung’s advanced research organization, has been appointed vice chair for 3GPP’s Radio Access Network Working Group 2 (RAN WG2). This group is responsible for developing the radio communication protocol standard between 5G handsets and base stations.

Additionally, Jaeyeon Song from Samsung Research and Narendranath Durga Tangudu from Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore have been re-elected as vice chairs following the successful completion of their two-year terms.

Jaeyeon Song will continue to serve as vice chair of 3GPP’s Service and System Aspects Working Group 4 (SA WG4), a group focused on advancing technology to support immersive media services, including video streaming and extended reality based on 5G. Narendranath Durga Tangudu will remain vice chair of 3GPP’s Core Network and Terminals Working Group 3 (CT WG3), a group focused on developing the open interface standards that expand 5G networks to third parties, including internet service providers.

In May 2023, Younsun Kim and Andrew Bennett of Samsung Research were appointed chairmen of 3GPP’s Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) and Service and System Aspects Working Group 2 (SA WG2), respectively.

Through its established leadership in 3GPP, Samsung is set to be at the forefront of technological innovation across the entire telecommunications industry. Beyond the 5G-Advanced standard that is currently in development, Samsung has prepared a solid foundation for 6G, which will be created in cooperation with 3GPP member companies for commercialization around 2030.

6G, the next generation of communication technology, just took its most important first step. Discussions on the global standards for 6G have been ongoing since early 2021. Presenting a standard for 6G technology, the Draft IMT-2030 (hereinafter 6G) Framework Recommendation was developed by the International Telecommunication Union — Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)¹ in June 2023. This milestone marks the completion of the first stage towards opening a new era of communication.

▲ (From left) Samsung Research’s HyoungJin Choi and Hyunjoong Lee participated in the development of the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation.

In July 2020, Samsung Electronics released a 6G white paper entitled “The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All,” presenting various aspects related to 6G — including technical and societal megatrends, new services, requirements, candidate technologies and an expected timeline for standardization. As a result of the white paper’s worldwide recognition, Samsung’s researchers are now leading efforts to standardize the next-generation communication technologies. Samsung Newsroom sat down with HyoungJin Choi, Chair of ITU-R’s 6G Vision Group, from Samsung Research’s Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC) Communications Standards Research Team, and Hyunjoong Lee from Samsung Research’s ACRC 6G Research Team who both participated in the development of the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation.

Finalization of the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation, the Blueprint of a New Communication Technology

The Draft 6G Framework Recommendation covers key information regarding the usage scenarios that 6G would pursue as well as capabilities and roadmaps toward the international standardization and commercialization of 6G.

As chair of ITU-R’s 6G Vision Group, HyoungJin Choi led the development of the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation. He described it as “the blueprint of a new communication technology,” and stressed its importance by saying: “Once it is completed, the detailed standardization activities from the definition of technical performance requirements to the finalization of technical specifications for radio interface technologies can be carried out.”

To construct a building, various decision-making processes from site development to construction methods are required. The process of developing new communication technologies is similar to this. Assuming that technology commercialization is a building, it is necessary to create a blueprint so that all construction procedures follow the same rules and norms. In our case of 6G technology, the blueprint is the Framework Recommendation. Additionally, it is necessary to determine the location and area of the land for building – in our example, this would be the frequency band. Therefore, it is essential to define a Framework Recommendation as a blueprint to build next-generation mobile telecommunication.

“From now on, standards development organizations — including the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) — will be developing technologies that satisfy the vision suggested by the 6G Framework, which will be submitted to ITU-R as candidate technologies,” said Choi. “Next, ITU-R will evaluate them and determine which one will be adopted as the 6G standard. When it comes to setting 6G capabilities or deciding the frequency bands needed for this communication technology, participating countries need to go through intense agreement processes.”

Expanding 6G Vision Beyond Its Limits

The question that remains for 6G is: How will this new communication technology be different?

“In the 6G era, the goal will be to provide diverse and expanded services in new areas such as ‘Integrated AI and Communication,’ ‘Integrated Sensing and Communication’ and ‘Ubiquitous Connectivity,’” said Hyunjoong Lee, a Samsung Research ACRC 6G Research Team member who actively participated in the development of the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation.

▲ Usage scenarios and overarching aspects of 6G (left) and capabilities of 6G (right) as outlined in the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation, proposing extended usage scenarios and improved technology capabilities compared to 5G.²

“In the 6G era, communication technologies are expected to enhance human experiences by seamlessly connecting the real world and the digital world,” said Lee. Thanks to digital twin and immersive communication technologies such as “XR” and “Holograms,” it is envisaged to provide various services such as educational and medical services to underdeveloped areas.

Working Through Differences: Developing a Framework for Everyone

Since the role and importance of communications have increased, setting the standard early on has become just as important as developing the technology itself. The completion of the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation is a valuable outcome of more than two and half years of countless discussions, compromises and agreements among the 193 member states and more than 900 member companies.

Choi played a leading role in setting the overall direction of the Recommendation’s development since he was appointed chair after building trust within the ITU-R over several years. Lee played the role of introducing and reflecting technical aspects into the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation. Although Choi and Lee played different roles in ITU-R, they moved as one to achieve a common goal. While they faced many challenges during the process, they achieved successful results thanks to their dedicated cooperation and great teamwork.

▲ HyoungJin Choi at the moment when the agreement was reached regarding the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation.

The past two years have not been easy for Choi, who had to balance various perspectives from its members as chair. “It was very difficult resolving the differences among the members,” he said. Choi had spent half the time worrying that there would continue to be unexpected issues right down until the very last minute. “Although it was a difficult process, it was very rewarding when the final agreement was reached among the members after everyone worked hard with the same determination and goal in mind.”

“As we headed to Switzerland, where the final meeting was held, we still felt worried,” noted Lee. “Fortunately, the main issues had been resolved well, and we were able to return home with a sense of relief and happiness.”

Turning the Dream of the 6G Era Into Reality

Samsung Research has been conducting extensive studies to lead 6G innovation. “We’ve been achieving meaningful results in our 6G technological development research using AI and Sensing technology recently,” said Lee. “We’ve conducted research on efficiently utilizing communication resources with AI. This can increase the communication speed experienced by users while significantly reducing the energy needed for transmitting the same amount of information, which ultimately provides more sustainable communication experiences.” When it comes to “Integrated Sensing and Communication” technologies, Lee explained: “We’re pursuing research and development on how to integrate communication technologies into daily use cases such as location tracking or the speed estimation of an object.”

Choi and Lee shared their plans and aspirations for the next generation of communications going forward. Both researchers hope for a future in which next-generation communication technology can become an established technology that enriches all of our lives.

“We will work hard to enable more abundant communication that transcends previous limitations through all kinds of connection types — including between people and people, people and machine, and even machine and machine,” said Choi. “We will do our best to achieve meaningful results in standardizing the spectrum and 6G requirements that can be carried out in the future.”

“I will continue to work so that 6G communication technology can be more impactful and relevant to people’s lives by providing more immersive experiences,” said Lee, regarding his own aspirations for the rest of his 6G journey. “While making the Framework Recommendation, my twin daughters were born, and I am proud to think that we are making the technology that they will use in the future.”

▲ (From left) HyoungJin Choi and Hyunjoong Lee making a “6G” sign with their hands.

Both Choi and Lee consider the completion of the Draft 6G Framework Recommendation as a new starting point for 6G technology. As Samsung and Samsung Research’s experts continue to usher the next era of communication technology, the reality of 6G commercialization draws closer every day.

¹ As the radiocommunication sector within the United Nations’ specialized agency for information and communication technologies agency, the International Telecommunication Union — Radiocommunication Sector oversees the standardization of radiocommunication technology and spectrum. It sets the standard for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) wireless communication technology and provides to its member states.
² For more information, please refer to Samsung Research’s “All set for 6G!”

Established in 1998, 3GPP is dedicated to developing the global unified standard for mobile communications. 3GPP is comprised of companies and organizations around the world — including Samsung, Qualcomm, Apple, Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and more.

Younsun Kim and Andrew Bennett from Samsung Research, Samsung’s advanced R&D hub, have been appointed as the Chairs of 3GPP’s Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) and Service and System Aspects Working Group 2 (SA WG2), respectively.

Younsun Kim was first appointed as the Chair of RAN WG1 in May 2021, and has been entrusted with the role again after completing his two-year term. Andrew Bennett has been elected the Chair of SA WG2 after he served as the group’s vice chair during four years.

As RAN WG1 and SA WG2 are fundamental to 3GPP, the two chairs are expected to play an important role in developing standards for 5G-Advanced, the next version of 5G and preparation of the next generation of mobile communications (i.e., 6G). RAN WG1 is responsible for the development of technical specifications for the physical layer of radio access network. SA WG2 is responsible for 5G system architecture standards.

“The two researchers being appointed as the chairs of key 3GPP Working Groups is a reflection of Samsung’s discernible global leadership in developing mobile communications standards,” said Paul (Kyungwhoon) Cheun, CTO, Samsung Electronics. “Going forward, Samsung will proactively contribute to the standard development for 5G-Advanced, the next evolution of 5G technology and 6G.”

“3GPP is developing the standard for 5G-Advanced in order to further improve 5G technology. We’ll make an effort to make sure that the 5G-Advanced standard incorporates innovations that can have crucial impacts on consumers’ experiences,” Kim said.

“We’ll work together with 3GPP member companies for, not just the 5G-Advanced standard that is currently being developed, but also the preparation of 6G. We expect 6G discussion would start around the mid-2020s to provide 6G networks and devices fulfilling the demands of our society around 2030,” said Bennett.

Helping users say goodnight to washed-out, blurry night images was a group effort driven by Samsung’s experts. To learn more about this groundbreaking camera feature for the Galaxy S23 series, Samsung Newsroom spoke with the experts at Samsung Research’s¹ global R&D centers, who collaborated on the technology.

Read on to see what John Seok-Jun Lee, Head of Computational Camera Part at Samsung Research America (SRA), and Narasimha Gopalakrishna Pai, Head of AI Computational Imaging Part at Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B), had to say about their joint development of Nightography, the best way to take crisp photos and videos from dusk until dawn.

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.

With increasing popularity in research studies about future AI technology, there is an even higher expectation that AI will bring more value to our daily lives. On November 8 and 9, Samsung Electronics hosted the Samsung AI Forum 2022 to share the progress of AI research and explore more ways for the industry to advance. World-renowned scholars and experts who attended this year’s forum focused on hyperscale AI, an AI model that can evolve to the human level of thinking by processing massive amounts of data.

Samsung Newsroom met with Vice President Joohyung Lee at Samsung Research’s¹ Global AI Center to hear more about the main topics discussed during the second day of the forum, which Samsung Research hosted. Learn more about upcoming technology trends and the future vision of AI research introduced by Samsung Research in the infographic below.

​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.

Now in its sixth year, Samsung AI Forum will be held from November 8 to 9 (KST). This is the first time in three years that the event will be held in person. With over 1,200 attendees expected to join, this global forum provides a packed program hosted by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT)¹ on November 8 and Samsung Research² on November 9.

The event will also be livestreamed on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel.

Day One: Shaping the Future with AI and Semiconductors

Under the theme of “Shaping the Future with AI and Semiconductor,” AI experts gathered to discuss the future direction of AI research that will create new milestones in AI-based semiconductor and material innovation.

The day started with opening remarks by Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. “I expect that AI technology will provide better convenience and new experiences for all while it also lays the foundation for other key innovations to various fields and applications, including next-generation semiconductors,” said Han.

Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, Canada, shared his latest research in a keynote presentation, “Why We Need Amortized, Causal and Bayesian World Models.” He emphasized the use of amortized inference and the Bayesian approach in causal models for AI that explores theories and design experiments in the field of science and general AI.

Afterward, technology sessions, such as “AI for R&D Innovation,” “Recent Advances of AI Algorithms” and “Large Scale Computing for AI and HPC” were delivered.

In the “AI for R&D Innovation” session, research leaders at SAIT, including the Executive Vice President and Head of SAIT’s AI Research Center, Changkyu Choi, shared the status and vision of Samsung’s research on AI. Specifically, they discussed how AI technology will be influential in fields including semiconductors and material development.

In a session named “Recent Advances of AI Algorithms,” Minjoon Seo, a professor at KAIST, and Hyunoh Song, a professor at Seoul National University, delivered presentations on the latest research achievements on AI algorithms, including large language model-based interface for ultra-accurate semantic search.

Lastly, in a session called “Large Scale Computing for AI and HPC,” leading researchers on supercomputers, including the former IBM and Intel Fellow, Alan Gara, discussed the role of AI in the future of high-performance computing. They also introduced an insightful case on processing-in-memory, an innovative technology that is enabled by the development of next-generation supercomputers.

Samsung AI Researcher of the Year awards, which were established to discover excelling rising researchers in the field of AI, were also presented during the forum. Samsung AI Researcher of the Year was awarded to five AI researchers, including Professor Mohit Iyyer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

In addition, various programs, including poster presentations of excellent research papers, an introduction of SAIT, an exhibition of its research projects and networking event for researchers and students in the field of AI, were held to accelerate active research in AI.

Day Two: Scaling AI for the Real World

Under the theme of “Scaling AI for the Real World,” Day 2 of the forum hosted by Samsung Research will be a venue for sharing the development direction of future AI technologies that will significantly affect our lives, including hyperscale AI, digital human, robotics, etc., that have become hot topics.

Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, will give a keynote on the “first steps of an effort to improve upon classical brain theories by optimizing biologically plausible unsupervised learning algorithms” together with a welcoming remark.

Following a presentation on the “Current Status of AI Research by Samsung Research” given by Daniel D. Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Global AI Center at Samsung Research, AI experts, including the heads of global research centers who have recently conducted active research will be invited to the stage as speakers.

Professor Terrence Sejnowski at the University of California San Diego, U.S., who found NeurIPS, the world’s most prestigious AI conference, will discuss the intelligence of hyperscale language models based on experimental cases testing whether hyperscale language models have intelligence.

This will be followed by an introduction of the next-generation AI research direction for ensuring the responsible and fair use of hyperscale AI in the products and services of businesses presented by Dr. Johannes Gehrke, Head of Microsoft Research Lab.

Next, Professor Dieter Fox at the University of Washington, U.S., who is also the Senior Director of Robotics Research at NVIDIA, will explain how a robot can directly operate unlearned objects only based on visual data without creating 3D models. He will also discuss how to use natural language commands to effectively instruct a robot to carry out various operations.

Lastly, Seungwon Hwang, a professor at Seoul National University, will discuss ways to use causality, evidentiality, and other forms of knowledge to further strengthen hyperscale language models.

There will be two live panel discussions moderated by EVP Daniel Lee, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, in which panelists will discuss various topics. There will also be Lightning Talk sessions in which researchers at the Global AI Center will give presentations on the details of their current research.

In the Lightning Talks session, Vice President Joohyung Lee at Global AI Center will discuss ways to use hyperscale AI models to combine the external appearance of a digital human with internal intelligence. SangHa Kim will also explain a machine translation technology that allows users to use various Samsung products with no language barrier.

In addition, participants will have opportunities to look at several demos and research posters produced by Global AI Center at the booth, where they can personally interact with the researchers.

Furthermore, on the forum’s website, speakers and participants can freely communicate in Korean and English on the Q&A Bulletin Board, where Samsung Research’s translation service “SR Translate” is applied.

¹ Samsung’s R&D hub dedicated to cutting-edge future technologies.
² Samsung Research, acting as Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, leads the development of future technologies for the company’s Device eXperience (DX) Division.

Like so many great innovations, the latest UDC was a group effort — driven by Samsung’s experts and consumers’ valuable feedback. To learn more about the enhanced UDC for Galaxy Z Fold4, Samsung Newsroom spoke with the experts at Samsung Research,¹ who collaborated on the technology.

Read on to see what John Seok-Jun Lee, Head of Computational Camera Part at Samsung Research America (SRA), and Alok Shukla, Head of AI Vision Solutions Part at Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B), had to say about their collaboration behind bringing enhanced UDC technology.

Q: What is an Under Display Camera (UDC)?

Seok-Jun: An Under Display Camera (UDC) is an innovative camera solution that enables an uninterrupted viewing experience on a mobile device by hiding the camera under the display and dedicating the whole screen to users while applications are running. It not only requires hardware innovation by placing a camera under a display panel but also requires algorithm innovation for restoring image quality — one of the most complex image restoration problems.

Q: How does the UDC work?

Alok: In UDC, a front-facing camera sits underneath the display. The screen pixel density is reduced in this area, allowing the screen to display imagery unhindered — but at the same time, not block light from reaching the camera when it’s in use. As the camera is placed underneath the display, UDC can suffer from poor image quality caused by diffraction artifacts, which results in flare, saturation, blur and haze. Therefore, while the UDC brings a better display experience, it also affects camera image quality and other downstream vision tasks. These complex and diverse distortions make restoring UDC images extremely challenging.

Q: Why is the UDC an important technology when it comes to Galaxy Z Fold4? What value does it provide to customers?

Seok-Jun: Samsung’s foldables are designed to be new and different, combining smartphone and immersive viewing experiences into one mobile device via breakthrough display technology. When folded, it provides smartphone-like use, and when unfolded, the display provides a more immersive and productive experience. Our consumer research showed that Galaxy Z Fold series users prefer the Cover Screen camera for capturing photos and selfies and the immersive Main Display for more productive tasks like watching videos, playing games and working on documents. Therefore, we thought UDC technology would be the perfect fit to meet their needs for an uninterrupted screen while still being capable of tasks like opening video calls. Samsung has launched the first-ever foldable UDC solution in Galaxy Z Fold3 and enhanced its quality further in the Galaxy Z Fold4.

Alok: Galaxy Z Fold4 truly unfolds a world of immersive display. UDC technology is at the core of the pursuit of a true full-screen display. By combining the leading innovation in display technology with advanced AI techniques for image restoration, Galaxy Z Fold4 provides the perfect balance between screen quality and camera image quality.

Q: How has the camera’s image quality improved since Galaxy Z Fold3?

Alok: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 showcased the world’s first UDC on a foldable. After the market release of Galaxy Z Fold3, one of the key feedbacks from consumers was to make the UDC less visible. On the Galaxy Z Fold4, sub-pixel arrangement was optimized to further hide the UDC.

As mentioned previously, when the camera is placed underneath the display, this can result in poor image quality caused by diffraction artifacts, which cause flare, saturation, blur and haze.

That’s why, in Galaxy Z Fold4, we have leveraged the power of AI, backed with multi-frame processing, to develop a novel computational imaging pipeline for UDC image restoration.

SRI-B, along with Visual SW R&D Group at MX Business, focused on developing AI Image Restoration for photo capture and preview to compensate for optical diffraction in UDC. At the same time, SRA’s Mobile Processor Innovation (MPI) Lab improved the multi-frame computational photography algorithm. Galaxy Z Fold4’s UDC solves key technical challenges in image quality to bring a unique experience to end customers.

Q: Walk us through the journey of the SRA-SRI partnership project. Why did your two teams collaborate?

Seok-Jun: The SRA MPI Lab has been working with SRI-B throughout MPI’s entire history at Samsung, from 2014’s Galaxy Note4 camera commercialization all the way to 2022’s Galaxy Z Fold4 and Z Flip4. SRA MPI has been leading MX multi-frame processing (MFP) technology R&D for UDC, Night Mode, Expert RAW and other technology. SRI-B has contributed to all commercialized SRA MPI’s MFP by providing amazing camera software, image quality tuning and resources toward commercialization as well as AI camera R&D. Our 3-way collaboration with MX R&D group, SRA MPI and SRI-B has been a success — especially when the worldwide team used time zone differences effectively to complete milestones on time for such a complicated project. It’s always a pleasure to work with them and deliver Galaxy devices’ camera successes together to accomplish our mutual goal of being the world’s best smartphone camera experience.

Q: Please explain your job role and your team’s contributions to the UDC. How did you contribute to making the best possible user experience?

Alok: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 UDC was a complex R&D project, and SRI-B’s role was to think in terms of end-to-end for the best consumer experience. This required multi-domain expertise and deep collaboration among multiple teams. Experts from SRI-B, SRA-MPI Lab and MX Visual SW R&D Group worked seamlessly to realize an end-to-end UDC experience.

SRI-B also played a key role in utilizing a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to execute the AI model, achieving real-time performance in previews and significantly faster capture processing time than in Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 UDC. Camera previews, video recordings and video calling scenarios need real-time performance without losing any frames. AI-based UDC restoration accelerated with NPU for preview processing was applied for the first time in Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4. Although real-time processing was not required, as camera capture requires higher image quality than a preview, achieving better image quality with less processing time was desired for user experience.

Q: What were some challenges you faced while developing this technology, and how did you overcome them?

Seok-Jun: Low light transmittance and light diffraction are the main challenges for UDC camera technology. Still, one more challenge, which is different from a punch hole camera image pipeline, is that UDC capture quality is affected by not only the camera module but also the display panel. SRA MPI’s AI-based 3D ISP algorithm was designed with the needed flexibility to tune the output image quality with the different display characteristics. Having such flexibility in 3D ISP helped to overcome such challenges.

Alok: SRI-B’s key focus was developing an AI image restoration module for Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 UDC. These restorations are required for photo capture mode as well as video mode. Video recording and video calling scenarios have strict requirements for real-time processing within the constraints of current consumption.

AI-based UDC restoration was applied for the first time in Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 UDC for video. To achieve a better video quality experience than Galaxy Z Fold3, we had to make the AI model lighter while still achieving good restoration quality. Multiple experiments were conducted in network design and training to achieve good quality in real-time. SRI-B extensively utilized NPU and advanced quantization techniques to prepare a lighter, highly optimized AI model that achieves real-time performance with low current consumption.

Q: What is your vision for future UDC iterations at Samsung?

Alok: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4’s UDC has opened up a new dimension to the smartphone camera form factor. UDCs in the future will enable placing larger camera sensors and multiple cameras at flexible positions without compromising the viewing experience. Another big challenge is towards mass adoption of UDC technology in more products as the main front camera. For this to happen, there will need to be a significant improvement in camera image quality, processing time and display experience.

Seok-Jun: Since the Galaxy Z Fold4 UDC provides a much better experience in terms of hiding the camera under the display and improving image quality, the R&D direction for the upcoming flagship devices will work towards making the UDC completely invisible. This will provide the best uninterrupted immersive mobile display experience while achieving the same image quality as a punch-hole camera.

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.

The Samsung AI Forum, now in its sixth year, is a place for exchanging technological advances with world-renowned AI scholars and experts, sharing the latest AI research achievements and exploring future research direction.

This year’s forum will be held in-person for the first time in three years and will also be live-streamed on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel.

Those who are interested in the event can register to participate in the forum from October 18 to the day of the event on the Samsung AI Forum website. Registered participants will be able to receive a detailed program agenda and submit questions online.

Day One: Shaping the Future With AI and Semiconductor

Day one will be hosted by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) under the theme “Shaping the Future with AI and Semiconductor.” Participants will discuss the current status and research direction on AI that will lead the future of innovations in other fields including semiconductors and materials.

Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics, will start the forum by giving the opening remarks, followed by a keynote speech from Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, Canada. Afterward, technology sessions, such as “AI for R&D Innovation,” “Recent Advances of AI Algorithms” and “Large Scale Computing for AI and HPC” will be held.

During each technology session, renowned AI experts and the AI research leaders at SAIT will be on stage to share their findings. Minjoon Seo, Professor at KAIST, and Hyunoh Song, Professor at the Seoul National University, will introduce the latest research achievements on AI algorithms, and the former IBM and Intel Fellow Alan Gara, who is one of the leading researchers on supercomputers, will make a presentation on the evolution of computing and the future of AI. AI research leaders at SAIT including Changkyu Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of SAIT’s AI Research Center, will share the status and vision of Samsung’s research on AI.

“This year’s AI forum will be prepared to be a place to discuss the direction of AI research to create a better future by applying AI technology to various fields, especially semiconductor, in the future.” said Gyo-Young Jin, President and the Head of SAIT as well as Co-chair of the Samsung AI Forum.

The Samsung AI Researcher of the Year awards, which were established to discover excelling rising researchers in the field of AI, will also be presented during the forum. In addition, various programs, including poster presentations of excellent research papers, introduction of the SAIT, exhibition of its research projects and networking event for researchers and students in the field of AI will be held to accelerate active research in AI.

Day Two: Scaling AI for the Real World

Day two of the forum will be hosted by Samsung Research under the theme “Scaling AI for the Real World.” Participants will share the direction of future AI technological advancement that will have an important impact on our lives, such as hyperscale AI, digital human and robotics technology, which are the latest trending topics.

Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, will start with a welcoming remark and a keynote speech on “Evolutionary approach to brain-inspired learning algorithms.”

Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Samsung Research’s Global AI Center, will give a presentation on current status of Samsung Research’s AI research, which will be followed by invited talks by AI experts, including the heads of Global Research Institutes.

Terrence Sejnowski, Professor at the University of California — San Diego and founder of NeurIPS (The Conference and Workshop on Neural Information Processing Systems), one of the most prestigious international conferences on AI, will speak on whether large language models have intelligent, and Dr. Johannes Gehrke, Head of Microsoft Research Lab, will explain the core technology of hyperscale AI and research directions of Microsoft’s next-generation AI.

Afterwards, Dieter Fox, Senior Director of Robotics Research at NVIDIA, will give a presentation on robot technology that controls objects without an explicit model and Seungwon Hwang, Professor at the Seoul National University, will share knowledge on robust natural language processing technology.

Furthermore, Daniel Lee will moderate the panel discussion on the latest AI trends and the future outlook with fellow speakers. There will also be times allotted for presentation and demonstration of the latest research status by the researchers at Samsung Research’s AI Research Center.

“This year’s Samsung AI Forum will be a place for participants to better understand various AI researches currently underway in terms of ‘Scaling AI for the Real World’ to increase the value of our lives,” said Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research. “We hope many people, who are interested in the field of AI, will participate in this year’s forum, which will be held both online and in person.”

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.

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.

The three-day event brought together 12 teams of engineering, design and art students from MIT, Harvard and Wellesley College. Each team was challenged to create a novel projection concept and a working prototype that addressed real problems in the lifestyle and wellness space.

Following in the spirit of William J. Mitchell, the former dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, the hackathon utilized an interdisciplinary approach, enabling students to utilize a variety of skills from different fields.

A Collaborative Effort Between Students and Samsung

Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, leads the development of future technologies for the company’s Device eXperience (DX) Division and is constantly challenging the status quo and pushing boundaries. Based on this philosophy, the hackathon challenged students to push themselves by breaking down the walls between various disciplines. The hackathon also allowed Samsung to connect with students by providing new opportunities for them to ideate, innovate and bring their ideas to life.

Younger generations of students have fresh perspectives and creative ideas on how to solve problems facing society. Taking inspiration from this, Samsung’s Research hopes to foster an environment where diversity and creativity can thrive, leading to great and sometimes unexpected solutions.

The hackathon was mutually beneficial for both students and Samsung. Students were able to learn more about Samsung Research by utilizing the company’s resources and facilities, helping them to learn and build relationships with others. Samsung was also able to attract talented students, further solidifying its position as a global company.

Expanding the Future of Wellness Through Student Innovation

After a long weekend of hacking, students shared their concepts and prototypes with E&I designers and MIT student mentors and Samsung executives including Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research and Dr. Federico Casalegno, EVP and Head of E&I Lab. Teams were judged on their data and research, prototypes, story, impact and overall uniqueness.

Through a variety of angles and thought-provoking ideas, each team created a unique solution to address problems in the lifestyle space. From utilizing projection to connect people through storytelling to creating virtual cooking experiences, many inspirational and innovative ideas were displayed at the hackathon.

“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.

Samsung Electronics today announced that Dr. Bongsu Shin (co-first author) at Samsung Research¹ published a paper titled “Actuating Compact Wearable Augmented Reality Devices by Multifunctional Artificial Muscle” in the world-renowned journal ‘Nature Communications.’

This project was carried out in partnership with the Ajou University’s team of Mechanical Engineering, led by Professor Je-Sung Koh (corresponding author) based in Korea. The joint research team developed an artificial muscle actuator that can be applied on augmented reality (AR) glasses and naturally fit haptic gloves.

With the increasing popularity of the metaverse, actuator and sensor technologies are evolving rapidly to create even more immersive experience in virtual worlds. Actuators and sensors integrated into wearable devices must be compact and lightweight as the devices are worn by users and often require mobility. The conventional actuator had certain limitations as to the realization of more advanced functionalities, as thin form factor and high-power density would be difficult for conventional types to achieve.

The research team suggests an artificial muscle actuator that resolves the challenges in practical engineering, which are limited to conventional types such as electromagnetic actuators. An artificial muscle actuator can function as a small-scale, high-power actuating system with a sensing capability for developing wearable devices such as multi-focus AR glasses and naturally fit haptic gloves. The research team designed a shape memory alloy (SMA)-based lightweight and high-power artificial muscle actuator, the so-called compliant amplified SMA actuator (CASA). The newly developed version is lightweight (0.22g) but durable enough to lift a weight that is 800 times heavier than itself.

“This new actuator that we suggest is lightweight, compact yet powerful in terms of force-to-weight ratio. It is significant that the new actuator has overcome the limitations of the conventional actuators, while bringing the potential for its expanded applications ranging from robotics to wearable devices,” Dr. Bongsu Shin at Samsung Research said. “We anticipate that the outcome of our latest research will be the core hardware technology for more immersive and interactive experience for the next generation.” 

The team also demonstrated how the actuator enables image depth control. Binary depth switching is adopted to reduce vergence accommodation conflict (VAC), which can cause visual fatigue to some of AR glasses users, by directly adjusting distance between the display and the optical system of the AR glasses prototype based on the focusing distance of the object to be projected.

Furthermore, non-vibrating mechanotactile outputs are important to generate natural and expressive tactile sensations on skin through haptic devices. To convey the sensation of a large skin deformation, haptic devices require actuators with a high force-to-weight ratio and a large displacement. Combining multiple actuators in the limited area of the haptic device prototype also enables more expressive tactile experiences.

CASA triggers an action to an object with pressure and measures pressure without a sensor by using a characteristic of the artificial muscle of which electrical resistance varies in response to outside pressure. The haptic glove prototype equipped with CASA is so slim and pressure-sensitive that it has the potential to be applied to telehaptics which recognizes expressions made by the tactile writing system and converts them into electric signals.

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.

This year’s recipient of the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award is Dr. Youngkwon Lim from Samsung Research¹ America’s Standards and Mobility Innovation Lab, marking the first time ever a Samsung Electronics employee has received the award since its inception.

▲ Dr. Youngkwon Lim, Standards and Mobility Innovation Lab at Samsung Research America

The ATSC is made up of over 103 member organizations, together whom represent the broadcast, broadcast equipment, motion picture, consumer electronics, computer, cable, satellite and semiconductor industries worldwide. The Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award is bestowed once a year to an individual representative of the membership whose technical and leadership contributions to ATSC have been invaluable and exemplary. The ATSC’s latest development, ATSC 3.0, is being deployed now in the U.S. and Korea, and is being adopted by Brazil and Jamaica as the next generation broadcasting standard.

SRA’s Dr. Youngkwon Lim has been actively contributing IP-based low-latency multimedia delivery technology including MPEG Media Transport, MMT, to ATSC 3.0 development, and has served as Chair of Specialist Group on Management and Protocols, S33, from its inception.

“We are grateful for Dr. Lim’s leadership in this critical piece of the ATSC 3.0 standard,” noted Madeleine Noland, President of the ATSC at the award-presenting ceremony that took place during the ATSC’s annual conference. “His experience in other standards development organizations allows him to quickly align ATSC documents with external documents for a cohesive set of standards. His valuable knowledge has helped ATSC move forward with signaling solutions, and I appreciate his expert guidance of S33.”

The recognition Dr. Youngkwon Lim has attained through receiving this award demonstrates Samsung’s continuous support for the development of next generation standards for the constant growth of the broadcast industry, as well as the company’s industry leadership.

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.

CVPR is a world-renowned international Artificial Intelligence (AI) conference co-hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Computer Vision Foundation (CVF) which has been running since 1983. CVPR is widely considered to be one of the three most significant international conferences in the field of computer vision, alongside the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) and the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV). CVPR 2022 will be held as a hybrid event, both in-person and online, from June 19 to 24 in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S..

Of the thesis papers submitted by Samsung Research, two papers submitted by its Toronto AI Center were selected for oral presentations. Opportunities to give oral presentations at CVPR 2022 are extended to the top 4-5% of the total number of papers submitted. For Samsung’s Toronto AI Center, this is the second time in two years they have earned such a chance, as they were also selected for oral presentation in 2020.

The first of these two oral presentations from the Toronto AI Center will focus on their paper “P³IV: Probabilistic Procedure Planning from Instructional Videos with Weak Supervision”, a study done on how to build next-level AI systems capable of analyzing and mimicking human behavior. Procedure planning is gaining attention in the field, as it could lead to technologies capable of assisting humans in solving goal-directed problems, such as cooking food or installing and repairing devices.

The research team’s approach undercuts the previous requirement of costly data annotations that the start and end times of each intermediate instructional step were labeled with. Instead, the new approach allows AI to learn from natural language instructions, sourced from the internet for example, and predict the intermediate steps. Additionally, the model is enhanced with a probabilistic generative module to handle the uncertainty inherent to procedural planning.

▲ A section from the presentation for “P³IV: Probabilistic Procedure Planning from Instructional Videos with Weak Supervision” by the Toronto AI Center

The second oral presentation to be given by the Toronto AI Center is a study on “Day-to-Night Image Synthesis for Training Nighttime Neural ISPs”. This study is focused on how to synthesize the nighttime image data needed to train Night Mode using neural Image Signal Processors (ISPs) on smartphone cameras. This technology converts clear daytime images — which are much easier to capture than nighttime images — into nighttime image pairs, a strategy that demonstrates performance on par with training on real data captured at night.

▲ A visual from “Day-to-Night Image Synthesis for Training Nighttime Neural ISPs” by the Toronto AI Center

Innovative Approaches Spanning Samsung Research’s Global AI Centers

As well as the two thesis papers submitted by the Toronto AI Center, other global Samsung AI centers — such as the Moscow AI Center, the Cambridge AI Center and the New York AI Center — have also attracted academic attention in anticipation of the conference.

Two papers submitted by the Moscow AI Center were accepted into the conference. The first is a study on what is currently the world’s most competitive Single-View Depth Estimation (SVDE). This study on depth estimation — a research area that concerns many forms of image manipulation, generation and analysis — has gained attention due to its high accuracy. Unlike its predecessors which require resource-intensive post-processing, the proposed GP2 (General-Purpose and Geometry-Preserving) SVDE approach demonstrates outstanding capabilities without the need for this post-processing.

The second paper, “Stereo Magnification with Multi-Layer Images”, is a study of a novel method of 3D photo synthesis. Unlike existing methods of 3D photo synthesis, which necessitate high-capacity memory and processing abilities, the method championed in this paper can be applied to mobile devices as well, thanks to a drastically increased memory efficiency which has not caused accuracy or processing effectiveness to suffer.

The Cambridge AI Center’s paper on “Gaussian Process Modeling of Approximate Inference Errors for Variational Autoencoders” achieves state-of-the-art performance by proposing a novel Gaussian Process (GP) modeling method. This enables test time inference using a single feed forward pass in Variational Autoencoder (VAE).

They also introduced the paper titled “Pushing the Limits of Simple Pipelines for Few-Shot Learning: External Data and Fine-Tuning Make a Difference”. In this paper, the research team proposes a novel neural network based on innovative transformer architecture for the few-shot learning which is a representative method for dealing with situations where data has scarce labelling.

These achievements, among many others, help emphasize Samsung Research’s position in the world of AI research and in the field of computer vision. Other papers that were accepted for CVPR 2022 include works submitted by Samsung Research’s Platform Team and Samsung R&D Institute India’s Virtual Intelligence Team.

Samsung Research operates AI centers in seven different regions; Korea (Seoul), the U.S. (Silicon Valley and New York), Canada (Toronto and Montreal), the U.K. (Cambridge) and Russia (Moscow). Going forward, Samsung will continue to conduct advanced research and actively push innovation in the AI field.

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.

Both sessions at the Forum featured talks from experts across academia and industry who specialize in next-generation communications technologies, and featured topics covering the present state and ambitious future of 6G.

Read on for Samsung Newsroom’s recap of the Forum and the areas of research that took center stage at the first-ever Samsung 6G Forum.

Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, gives the opening speech at Samsung 6G Forum.

Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research,¹ opened up the Forum by sharing Samsung’s vision for the next-generation of communications technologies. “We envision that 6G will provide the ultimate in experiences through the next level of hyper-connectivity, and this idea serves as the foundation of our 6G vision,” noted Seung. “We believe that it is the right time to start preparing for 6G. Shaping 6G will require many years, as we have seen with previous generations, and will need lots of discussion and collaboration among players in industry as well as academia.”

Setting the tone for the rest of the day, Seung went on to express his confidence in 6G’s potential to become a fundamental technology that drives a convergence of services between industries and will be ultra-wideband, ultra-low latency, ultra-intelligent and hyperspatial, as well as opening up whole new realm of connectivity.

6G Air Interface: Relentless Innovation of Wireless Technologies and United Efforts To Secure New Spectrum Opportunities

Jeffrey Andrews, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, delivers his keynote for the morning session of Samsung 6G Forum.

Opening up the morning session of the 6G Forum, Jeffrey Andrews, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, delivered a keynote speech titled ‘Deep Learning in the 6G Air Interface’. This keynote saw Andrews focus on the role of machine learning in next-generation communication, including how 6G communication can improve the performance of air interface through deep learning as well as how more deeply-penetrated machine learning might be expected to transcend the current limits of 5G technologies. “In order to successfully apply machine learning to 6G as well as 5G, it is of course necessary for us to understand both wireless communications and machine learning fundamentals,” emphasized Professor Andrews. “It is essential for us to work together in order to make progress on this topic and do novel work.”

The keynote speech was followed by a series of in-depth expert talks, the first of which was given by Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President (SVP) at Samsung Research America and titled ‘Radio Technology Evolution for Beyond 5G and 6G’. SVP Zhang introduced the R&D progress for the possible wireless technologies of 6G communication and presented two new 6G spectrum opportunities that are currently being investigated: an upper mid-band of 7-24 GHz and an enormous sub-terahertz band of 92-300 GHz. “Both options provide us with a very good opportunity to find enough capacity for all these exciting 6G services,” noted SVP Zhang. He then also detailed how sub-terahertz band has been tested in the field by his team as well as introduced advanced duplex technology called XDD for coverage enhancement and innovations in distributed MIMO. He concluded with an enthusiastic reiteration of the value of cooperation, emphasizing the need for collaboration between institutions, companies and countries necessary to bring about future innovations.

Takehiro Nakamura, SVP and General Manager at NTT DOCOMO, delivers an online talk titled ‘5G Evolution and 6G’.

The second expert talk was given by Takehiro Nakamura, SVP and General Manager at NTT DOCOMO under the title of ‘5G Evolution and 6G’. As well as discussing the global growth seen recently into 5G and 6G research, SVP Nakamura expressed his opinions on performance improvement in the case of Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) technology being applied in 5G and 6G communications. “6G networks can perform as human nerves,” detailed SVP Nakamura regarding the potential of IOWN technologies applied for 6G. “They can augment and extend human capabilities. If we can share body movement, the five senses and emotions through 6G networks, we can realize very interesting and exciting new services which were described as science fiction.”

John Smee, SVP of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., presents his talk at Samsung 6G Forum.

The third expert talk of the morning session was conducted by John Smee, SVP of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., on the topic of ‘Driving Air Interface Innovation Toward 6G’. SVP Smee carefully detailed how technological innovations will pave the path to a 6G world. “When we take a step back and imagine the world in 2030, it’s really about understanding changing the physical world and many different types of devices that we will have connected,” he explained. SVP Smee highlighted six key research vectors in particular: artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML)-powered E2E communications, spectrum expansion and sharing, new radio designs, communications resiliency, scalable network architecture and the merging of worlds.

Juho Lee, Fellow at Samsung Research, leads a panel discussion around 6G RAN technology.

Following the presentations, Juho Lee, Fellow at Samsung Research, led a panel discussion on 6G RAN technology. The seven key themes addressed by the panel were the strengths of 6G over 5G, the killer applications for 6G, the relationship between 5G-Advanced and 6G, the performance requirements for 6G wireless technologies, the spectrum for 6G, wireless technologies for 6G and the potential of AI for air interfaces. “Securing new spectrum is one of the most important elements for research and development of the 6G air interface technology,” noted Lee. “Without the new spectrum, it will be difficult to build a next-generation system.”

Sunghyun Choi, Executive Vice President (EVP) and Head of Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research shares Samsung’s latest 6G research results.

The morning session was then concluded by Sunghyun Choi, Executive Vice President (EVP) and Head of Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research, who shared the most recent results of Samsung’s research into key 6G candidate technologies along with demonstration videos.

Intelligent Network for 6G: Native AI Support for Next-Generation Communications

The afternoon session commenced with a keynote speech from Tarik Taleb, Professor at University of Oulu, Finland, under the title of ‘6G Networking — The Journey Towards a Novel Vision of “Service of Services”’. In his keynote, Professor Taleb advocated for the use of AI, network function, virtualization, software-defined networking and edge/cloud computing in order to reduce expenditure and operational costs, and proposed that 6G should be viewed as a new service concept beyond next-generation communications. “I would like to share the view of this journey which I think is going to lead us to another vision of 6G as being a service of services, rather than what is known as 6G being a network of networks.”

Following the keynote, Seungjoo Maeng, Master at Samsung Electronics, gave a talk on ‘Challenges in Applying AI/ML Technology to Improve Performance of Mobile Communication Systems’. In his talk, Master Maeng highlighted some of the challenges that might arise when AI/ML technologies are applied to 6G, and went on to propose some potential solutions. Master Maeng also concluded that collaboration among experts is the key to solve the issues of applying AI/ML technologies to 6G: “Experts should work closely together to develop meaningful and efficient technologies,” he said. “Working together is the key for successful technology development.”

The next talk was given by Byonghyo Shim, Professor at Seoul National University, under the theme of ‘Deep Learning-Aided Mobile Detection and Beamforming for mmWave and THz Communications’. The talk presented a new paradigm for mmWave and THz communications based on deep learning (DL). “Down the road we’ll have more emerging applications, like AR, VR, XR and metaverse, to name just a few and they require further increase of data rate,” noted Professor Shim. “Deep learning would contribute for improving the performance of beamforming that is the essential technology for high frequency band used to increase the data rate when it comes to supporting emerging applications.”

The final talk of the day was given by Shi Jin, Professor at Southeast University, China. In his talk, titled ‘Deep Learning-based CSI Feedback in Massive MIMO Systems’, Professor Jin highlighted the challenges inherent to applying AI/ML technologies to massive MIMO systems as well as the ways that could solve them. “In the past 10 years, deep learning has achieved great success in many areas,” noted Professor Jin. “Inspired by this success, deep learning has been introduced in wireless communications and our work — deep learning-based CSI feedback — has become a popular topic in 6G research.”

Following the afternoon sessions’ talks, EVP Choi led a panel discussion on network AI that saw the Forum’s experts share their opinions on the way AI technologies are being investigated actively in 6G research and development. The participants also shared their thoughts on the research direction for AI in 6G on the topics of native AI, cost issues, interoperability, standardization of technologies for support of AI and reliable AI.

Tarik Taleb, Professor at University of Oulu, Finland, takes part in the Samsung 6G Forum’s afternoon panel discussion.

The panel discussion also saw the participants deal with the challenges surrounding the commercialization of 6G, their predictions for the future of AI/ML technologies in 6G and, more generally, what needs to be prepared for realizing 6G. “We need to define all the KPIs, accuracy and reliability of AI models in order to get into standardization of the technologies required for support of AI,” noted Professor Taleb, who also emphasized the need for digital twins and simulators for the benchmarking of AI models. Professor Shim also advocated for the importance of collaboration in this process, noting that: “in order to standardize the technologies required for truly using AI in 6G, cooperation based on consensus across companies is key.”

At the inaugural Samsung 6G Forum, the thoughts and experiences that were shared by experts around the current status and future of 6G provided a glimpse into the future of 6G that Samsung, along with industry experts, academics and partners, is working hard to realize. Stay tuned to Samsung Newsroom for all the latest news on the next generation of communications technologies.

Key Takeaways From the Samsung 6G Forum’s Speakers

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.

Samsung Electronics announced that the company hosts its first-ever Samsung 6G Forum (S6GF) online today.

Under the theme of ‘The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All.’, the forum is divided into two sessions and broadcasts live online via Samsung’s YouTube channel. Each session consists of talks by experts from academia and industry specializing in next-generation communications technologies, followed by a panel discussion.

“We envision that 6G will provide ultimate experiences for humans and everything through the next level of hyper-connectivity, and this idea serves as the foundation of our 6G vision,” said Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research.¹ “We believe that it is the right time to start preparing for 6G. Shaping 6G will require many years, as we have seen with previous generations, and will need lots of discussion and collaborations among players in industry and academia.”

Morning Session — 6G Air Interface 

The morning session is held under the theme, ‘6G Air Interface’. In this session, Jeffrey Andrews, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin gives a keynote speech, titled ‘Deep Learning in the 6G Air Interface’, highlighting that deep learning (DL) will be a key technology enabling 6G, which can provide important advances at many layers of the air interface.

Following the keynote speech, Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President (SVP) at Samsung Research America, Takehiro Nakamura, SVP and General Manager at NTT DOCOMO and John Smee, SVP of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. give in-depth expert talks.

SVP Charlie Zhang of Samsung Research America makes a presentation on ‘Radio Technology Evolution for Beyond 5G and 6G’. He presents that while 6G technologies are still in their early days, a few emerging directions are taking shape and gaining momentum in academia and industry alike, including the support of a new spectrum such as upper mid-band in the range of 7-24 GHz and Terahertz (THz) band, novel antenna technologies, the evolution of duplex technology and network topology, spectrum sharing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a native part of the protocol design, etc.

SVP Takehiro Nakamura of NTT DOCOMO talks on ‘5G Evolution and 6G’, highlighting the research focused on technologies and services for 5G evolution and 6G is accelerating throughout the world. SVP John Smee of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. talks about ‘Driving Air Interface Innovation Toward 6G’, emphasizing the advanced wireless research and development along multiple vectors that will bring disruptive innovations and push technology boundaries to enable new and enhanced user experiences with 6G.

Following the presentations, Juho Lee, Fellow at Samsung Research, leads a panel discussion on 6G RAN technology. Afterward, Sunghyun Choi, Executive Vice President (EVP) and Head of Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research, shares Samsung’s progress in 6G research along with demo videos.

Afternoon Session — Intelligent Network for 6G

The afternoon session goes under the theme, ‘Intelligent Network for 6G’. Tarik Taleb, Professor at University of Oulu, Finland, starts off with a keynote speech regarding ‘6G Networking — The Journey Towards a Novel Vision of “Service of Services”’. He highlights that AI, Network Function Virtualization, Software-Defined Networking and Edge/Cloud computing brought significant benefits in terms of reducing expenditure and operational costs, flexibility in deployment and faster time to market, and mentions that 6G will likely enable a new breeze of cloud-native mobile networking.

Following the keynote speech, Seungjoo Maeng, Master at Samsung Electronics, Byonghyo Shim, Professor at Seoul National University and Shi Jin, Professor at Southeast University, China deliver in-depth expert talks.

Master Seungjoo Maeng of Samsung Electronics talks about ‘Challenges in Applying AI/ML Technology to Improve Performance of Mobile Communication Systems’, highlighting the challenges in applying AI and ML (Machine Learning) to improve the performance of wireless mobile communication systems and how to solve them.

Professor Byonghyo Shim of Seoul National University gives a talk on ‘Deep Learning-Aided Mobile Detection and Beamforming for mmWave and THz Communications’, presenting the new paradigm to control mmWave and THz communications based on DL. Professor Shi Jin of Southeast University, China introduces ‘Deep Learning-based CSI Feedback in Massive MIMO Systems’, discussing challenges and potential research directions associated with implementing DL-based CSI (channel state information) feedback in future wireless communication systems.

After these presentations, EVP Sunghyun Choi of Samsung Research leads a panel discussion on network AI.

For more information on ‘Samsung Tech Forum’, please visit Samsung Research website at research.samsung.com.

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

Steven Macenski, Samsung Research America

In his recent paper, Macenski introduced ROS2’s architecture and current state-of-the-art technologies along with its various use cases in ground, sea and air. Especially, Macenski covered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s VIPER² Lunar project which will be launched by November in 2023, with respect to its ongoing ROS2-based simulation, operation and ground-based perception technology. The paper clearly and thoroughly explains the technologies of ROS2, an open-source software development kit for robotics applications, so many researchers and developers can refer to it in future work.

While collaborating on the development of robotics software technologies in ROS2, Macenski represents Samsung Electronics as an Open Source Maintainer responsible for the review and approval of source code as well as regular releases. He also participates as a board member of the Technical Steering Committee (TSC), ROS2’s top decision-making body. More notably, Macenski has won the annual Best Developer Award for ROS2 for two consecutive years since 2020. The TSC includes more than 20 major companies around the world, including Samsung Electronics, Open Robotics, Toyota, Intel, Wind River, iRobot and Bosch.

For his Science Robotics paper, Macenski teamed up with research luminaries in ROS2, such as the CEO of Open Robotics Brian Gerkey and ROS2’s guru-level developer Tully Foote.

¹ Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

² Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is a lunar rover developed by NASA and is currently planned to be delivered to the surface of the Moon in November 2023.

“We have started on our journey long ago to understand, develop and standardize the 6G communications technology,” said Sunghyun Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research.² “We are committed to taking the lead and sharing our findings to spread our vision to bring the next hyper-connected experience to every corner of life.”

6G Spectrum: Expanding the Frontier

6G would require spectrum with ultra-wideband contiguous bandwidth ranging from hundreds of MHz to tens of GHz to enable new services such as high-fidelity mobile holograms and truly immersive extended reality (XR) that are characterized by ultra-high speed communications and large amount of data. There is also growing demand for greater coverage. In response to these requirements, Samsung proposes considering all available bands for 6G, from low-band under 1 GHz, to mid-band in the 1-24 GHz range and high-band in the 24-300 GHz range.

It also highlights the importance of securing new bands for commercial deployments of 6G, as 5G networks will still be operational when the 6G deployment starts. The mid-band within the 7-24 GHz range is a candidate that can support faster data speed and reasonable coverage. The sub-terahertz (sub-THz) band in the 92–300 GHz range is being considered for support of ultra-high speed data rate. The white paper also mentions the refarming of existing bands used for 3G, 4G and 5G networks to 6G operation as another way to obtain all the spectrum necessary for 6G. In addition, it notes that research on forward-looking regulations and technologies on spectrum utilization is essential to provide efficient and flexible support of 6G and other services with the limited spectrum.

Recent Findings on 6G Candidate Technologies

Along with the release of the 6G spectrum white paper, Samsung also highlights its research findings on some of 6G candidate technologies – specifically about sub-THz band communications, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), cross division duplex (XDD), full duplex, artificial intelligence (AI)-based nonlinearity compensation (AI-NC) and AI-based energy saving (AI-ES).

Sub-THz is considered a spectrum candidate for 6G communications, which is expected to support the data rate up to 1 Terabits per second (Tbps), 50 times faster than 20 Gbps of 5G networks. Samsung successfully demonstrated 6 Gbps data rate at a 15 meters distance indoors in June 2021, and 12 Gbps at a 30 meters distance indoors and 2.3 Gbps at a 120 meters distance outdoors the following year.

RIS can improve the beam sharpness and can steer or reflect the wireless signal to a desired direction with the use of a metamaterial surface. It can reduce the penetration loss and blockage of high frequency signal, e.g., mmWave. Samsung demonstrated that their RIS lens technology can enhance the signal strength by four times and the beam steering range by 1.5 times.

XDD can improve the propagation distance of uplink signal up to two times in the TDD system by enabling the continuous uplink transmission in a small portion of the system bandwidth. Hence, XDD is capable of dramatically enhancing the coverage of the TDD system often used in high-frequency bands. Samsung demonstrated its core technology, self-interference cancellation at the base station.

With full duplex, the data transmission and reception can take place simultaneously using the same frequency so that the data speed increases up to two times. Samsung carried out a successful trial of the full duplex in the mmWave band with a base station and a terminal 100 meters apart, demonstrating the self-interference cancellation of over 114 dB and 1.9 times improvement in the data rate.

AI-NC utilizes AI at the receiver to compensate the signal distortion caused by the nonlinearity of a transmitter’s power amplifier and hence, can significantly improve the coverage and quality of high-rate data signals. Samsung demonstrated 1.9 times improvement of the coverage for high-speed uplink data and 1.5 times improvement of the transmission speed for a given coverage.

AI-ES capitalizes on AI to minimize energy consumption at the base station by adjusting the parameters controlling the power on/off of selected cells depending on traffic load, without affecting network performance. In a real data-based replicated simulation of base stations, Samsung applied AI-ES to demonstrate an energy saving of more than 10%.

Samsung plans to share more details and the findings of its 6G research at the company’s first Samsung 6G Forum (samsung6gforum.com) scheduled on May 13, 2022.

For more information on ‘Samsung Tech Forum’, please visit Samsung Research website at research.samsung.com/events.

¹ Samsung’s 6G spectrum white paper is available for download at research.samsung.com.

² Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

Over a term of office that begins this April and extends through to 2023, Samsung is set to play a key role in the decision-making undertaken by the O-RAN open source project’s TOC.

Active Participation for the Future of Telecommunications Technologies

Through its participation in the O-RAN Alliance, Samsung has been expanding its influence in the Open RAN domain, an area that is currently in the spotlight thanks to its potential to be the next generation of radio access network (RAN) technology. Over the past two years, the company has been continuously developing open source code for RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC).

Thanks to this pioneering work, Samsung has been elected as an official member of the TOC, the top voting body of the O-RAN SC, along with 11 other companies. JinGuk Jeong, Vice President and Head of Advanced Solutions Team at Samsung Researchh¹‘s Advanced Communications Research Center has now begun his term as the company’s representative to the TOC following the membership offer.

▲ JinGuk Jeong, Vice President and Head of Advanced Solutions Team at Samsung Research’s Advanced Communications Research Center

Setting Standards for Global Specifications and Open Source Software

The O-RAN SC TOC has twelve seats comprised of six global telecommunications operators — AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, NTT Docomo and TIM — and 6 telecommunications equipment and components providers — Samsung Electronics, Ericsson, Nokia, Windriver, Radisys and Viavi.

O-RAN SC is sponsored by O-RAN Alliance, which releases specifications, and it develops and releases their specification compatible software as open source. As a member of the TOC, Samsung is set to play a role in the final approval of the bi-annual open source code release, the establishment of a development roadmap, and in making decisions necessary to ensure alignment with the O-RAN Alliance.

Through the open source leadership secured with this TOC membership, Samsung plans to continue strengthening its advanced research in Network AI (Artificial Intelligence) / ML (Machine Learning) based on O-RAN technology as it expands its influence in other related industries.

¹ Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

Under the theme of ‘The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All.’, the Samsung 6G Forum will bring together leading global experts from academia and industry in the area of next-generation communications technologies to discuss in-depth about future of the technologies that will drive significant changes across the board by 2030.

The forum will be divided into two sessions and broadcast live online via Samsung’s YouTube channel. Each session will consist of talks by the participating experts, followed by a panel discussion.

Anyone interested in the forum is encouraged to visit the event website (https://Samsung6gForum.com) to register online from April 13 to May 13. Email notifications will be sent out for event schedule updates, and registered participants may leave questions on the website prior to each session.

“We are excited to host our first forum solely dedicated to sharing knowledge and insights on the 6G technology and to spreading our vision,” said Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research. “In addition to the Samsung AI Forum and the Samsung Security Tech Forum we hold every year as ‘Samsung Tech Forum’, this new Samsung 6G Forum will further strengthen our position within the field. We look forward to discussing related key topics with colleagues, experts, and anyone interested in the next-generation communications technology.”

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

Samsung 6G Forum Schedule

Morning Session – 6G Air Interface (09:00am-12:10pm KST)

The morning session will begin with opening remarks by Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research. In-depth expert talks, under the theme ‘6G Air Interface,’ will be delivered by Jeffrey Andrews, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin; Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President at Samsung Research America; Takehiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the 6G Laboratories at NTT DOCOMO; and John Smee, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. A panel discussion led by Juho Lee, Fellow at Samsung Research, will follow afterward.

Afternoon Session – Intelligent Network for 6G (1:10pm-4:20 PM KST)

The afternoon session, under the theme ‘Intelligent Network for 6G,’ will invite Tarik Taleb, Professor at University of Oulu, Finland; SeungJoo Maeng, Master at Networks Business, Samsung Electronics; Byonghyo Shim, Professor at Seoul National University; and Shi Jin, Professor at Southeast University, China to give talks on Intelligent Network for 6G. This compelling talk session will be followed by a panel discussion led by Sunghyun Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research.

For more information on ‘Samsung Tech Forum,’ please visit Samsung Research website at https://research.samsung.com/events.

Part one of this two-part series focused on Samsung’s latest home appliances and displays. Here, Junghoe Kim of Samsung Research’s Robot Center¹ and Hoseong Kang from Samsung’s Mobile eXperience Business offer exclusive insights on the company’s latest robots and the new Galaxy S21 FE.

Robotics: Reimagining Robots as Life Companions

▲ Junghoe Kim of Samsung Research’s Robot Center stands alongside the Samsung Bot i interactive robot.

Q: What is the theme for Samsung Research’s showcase at CES 2022?

The overall concept for Samsung Research at CES 2022 is “Digital, Meet Physical”. We’ve gone to great lengths to show how the personalized experiences that millennials and zoomers value can be seamlessly connected to the digital world.

To that end, the ‘house’ that we set up at CES was designed to resemble a digital world like a metaverse. Our AI ​​Avatar was created to identify users’ locations in the real world using UWB (Ultra Wide Band) location recognition technology, and interact with them through the nearest smart home product.

At this year’s CES, two types of companion robots will be introduced: the Samsung Bot i, an interactive robot, and the Samsung Bot Handy, a manipulation robot that can assist with household chores. They can help users by arranging a video conference for an urgent meeting, or by setting the table for a meal. Our CES 2022 booth demonstrates how AI and robots can come together to introduce innovative user experiences to the home of the future.

Q: What are some of the Samsung Bot i and Samsung Bot Handy’s most innovative features and technologies?

The Samsung Bot i is an interactive robot that utilizes balance control technology. It moves like a living being, making dynamic and life-like movements. When it’s next to the user, it moves alongside them and offers various forms of support. When it’s away from the user, it manages various tasks for them using its telepresence² function.

The Samsung Bot Handy is a robot that helps out with various household chores using manipulation³ technology. This enables the robot to recognize objects at home and skillfully pick them up. Whereas at last year’s CES, we showcased a technology that could pick up a single object based on learning, this year, we will introduce a scenario called “tableware handling”. This technology enables the robot to pick items up after recognizing multiple objects and analyzing the surrounding environment.

▲ (From left) The Samsung Bot Handy, an AI Avatar and the Samsung Bot i

Q: How would you summarize Samsung Research’s R&D philosophy when it comes to robots, and where is the company’s research heading?

Samsung Research’s Robot Center is conducting research in various areas under the vision, “Samsung Bot, Touching Your Daily Life.” We strive to make our robots companions that help users in their daily lives by closely interacting with them and making their lives happier and more convenient. To achieve this, we’re taking core robot technologies like mobility and manipulation a step further by creating platforms based on our extensive expertise in AI, and we’re developing various robots based on research in those areas.

The Galaxy S21 FE: A Smartphone for Fans, by Fans

▲ Mobile eXperience team member Hoseong Kang holds up the Galaxy S21 FE, the newest S series smartphone, designed with feedback from Galaxy fans

Q: Which features of the newly unveiled Galaxy S21 FE should people pay special attention to?

The goal of the Galaxy S21 FE (Fan Edition) is to offer the Galaxy S series experience to even more users. It was created by combining the most beloved features of the Galaxy S21. What makes the S21 FE so special is that it makes the S21 series’ flagship experience available to more people while offering the same iconic contour-cut design, outstanding AI-powered camera, Dynamic AMOLED 2X display and flagship performance.

The camera is a crucially important part of the smartphone. Millennials and zoomers (members of Gen Z) in particular make use of the front-facing camera in a range of different ways. That’s why we equipped the S21 FE with a high-resolution, 32MP front camera that lets you take high-quality photos anytime, anywhere.

Q: Galaxy FE devices are designed to allow more people to enjoy the core flagship features that Galaxy users love. How are users’ opinions gathered on functions, and what insights have you gained through that research?

When planning FE devices, we collect feedback on the Galaxy series from thousands of fans. Through that research, we’ve been able to identify which aspects of the Galaxy S series fans love the most.

We listen closely to their feedback and identify the common perceptions about Galaxy devices that transcend regional and cultural boundaries. One of the insights that has come up repeatedly in our research is that many fans associate Galaxy devices with the idea of constant innovation. This is something that Galaxy devices have earned by driving innovation in the mobile space for more than a decade. It’s also the core philosophy that the FE line, and other future products, must live up to.

▲ The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE empowers fans to express themselves with four unique new colors

Q: Why is Samsung continuously expanding the Galaxy S series lineup? What is the ultimate goal?

When it comes to innovating with the mobile experience, Samsung is at the forefront. We have always been one step ahead of market demand, and we’ve been able to use the Galaxy brand to bring users new and innovative mobile experiences. The Galaxy S21 FE is the latest product of our approach to innovation. With its unique colors and design, it offers users a broader range of choices, helping them express themselves.

¹ Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

² Refers to a virtual video conferencing system that makes participants feel as if they are in the same room.

³ Refers to the skillful manipulation of objects with hands. This includes picking objects up.

The five papers selected for AES’ esteemed ‘Top 10’ list this year were submitted by the Samsung Research (SR) ¹ Visual Technology Team and Samsung Research America (SRA)’s Audio Lab.

Read on to learn more about the industry-leading papers submitted by Samsung to have received the Top 10 accolade this year.

① A Study in AI for Bass Extension and Distortion Reduction in Loudspeakers (SRA)

The most downloaded paper from this Fall’s AES conference, SRA’s paper entitled ‘Application of AI Techniques for Nonlinear Control of Loudspeakers’, continues the team’s work into bass extension and distortion reduction.

The paper posits that, in order to obtain high loudness that features good bass extension, low distortion and mechanical protection, the motion of the loudspeaker’s diaphragm needs to be accurately controlled.

SRA’s study presents a novel approach to solving these issues that harnesses a neural network to directly map the loudspeaker’s diaphragm displacement to the input voltage, allowing for the loudspeaker to be ‘inverted’. This technique not only allows control and linearization of the loudspeaker without theoretical assumptions, but it is also simpler to implement.

② Developing a Method To Measure Multiple Loudspeakers Simultaneously (SRA)

SRA’s second Top 10 paper, titled ‘Deconvolution of Room Impulse Responses From Simultaneous Excitation of Loudspeakers’, presents a method that allows for the measuring of several loudspeakers in a room simultaneously that reduces the measurement time, compared with typical immersive audio systems, by a factor of ten.

Traditional room-equalization involves exciting one loudspeaker at a time and then de-convolving the loudspeaker-room response from the recording. As the number of loudspeakers and positions within a room increases, the time required to measure loudspeaker-room responses therefore also increases. Therefore, SRA’s paper presents a technique to deconvolve impulse responses after exciting all loudspeakers at the same time.

③ Optimizing the Integration of Audio Systems Into Slim TVs (SRA)

Along with the development of new space-efficient display technologies in recent years has come the trend to decrease the overall size of consumer electronics, including televisions. In order to combat the physical limitations for audio technology development brought about by these designs, SRA has produced their AES Top 10-certified paper titled ‘Transducer Design Considerations for Slim TV Applications’.

The slim TV form factor brought about by industry trends creates a challenge for the design of integrated audio systems as it severely limits the physical performance possibilities of any acoustic transducer. For the most part, modern DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and amplifier technologies have been able to utilize the transducer up to its performance limits and thus maintain audio quality. However, if further thickness reduction of the TV is desired, these technologies will no longer be enough. SRA’s paper discusses the physical limits of current designs and suggests a new layout of a moving coil-transducer for ultra-slim device applications.

④ Discovering the Best Audio Codec for HDR10+ (SRA)

As we move into the HDR10+ era, SRA has been conducting research into the preferred audio codec for HDR10+, resulting in this accolade-winning paper, ‘Bitrate Requirements for an Audio Codec for Stereo, Surround and Immersive Formats’.

The paper shows that the Opus codec would be an excellent choice as the preferred audio codec for HDR10+. The team conducted three listening tests on Opus encoded stereo, 5.1 and 7.1.4 channel content taken from music, cinematic and EBU files encoded at bitrates of 32, 48 and 64 kbps per channel. Current Opus encapsulation in Ogg does not support 7.1.4 with stereo pairing. Therefore, the paper proposes a new stereo pairing schema to accommodate 7.1.4 content in Opus with joint stereo encoding. The results of the study conducted indicate that a bit rate of 64 kbps per channel or higher is required for transparency in stereo, but 48 kbps per channel may be sufficient for 5.1 and 7.1.4 audio formats.

⑤ Developing AI-Based 3D Audio Codec for High-Immersion in OTT Service Environment (SR)

As growing trends indicate that users’ preferred media consumption platform has shifted from cinema or broadcast channels to over-the-top (OTT) services, SR’s paper, titled ‘AI 3D Immersive Audio Codec Based on Content-Adaptive Dynamic Down-Mixing and Up-Mixing Framework’, proposes new 3D immersive audio codec that can support various spatial audio formats for multiple loudspeaker layouts accessible in OTT service environments.

Unlike conventional technologies that use a fixed mixing profile regardless of content type and characteristics, SR proposes a framework that variably applies the determined mixing/de-mixing profile by dynamically performing audio scene classification and spatial energy distribution characteristics analysis based on AI technology. It was also shown through a listening evaluation that the proposed one can provide a higher immersion than the conventional method even in a home entertainment OTT service environment.

¹ Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

Speakers representing various fields introduced newly developed AI algorithms, as well as innovative AI solutions that can benefit our lives in the future. Samsung Electronics livestreamed this year’s forum on its YouTube channel and offered participants – which included engineers, researchers and students in the field of AI – the opportunity to interact with experts during a Q&A session.

Read on for Samsung Newsroom’s recap of the presentations and key topics that took center stage during the two-day event.

Samsung AI Forum Day One

Developing AI That Addresses Common Problems

Hosted by the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Samsung’s R&D hub dedicated to cutting-edge future technologies, day one of the Samsung AI Forum began with opening remarks from Dr. Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics. “Digital transformation has been accelerated in every industry, to which data science and machine learning are essential,” said Dr. Kim. “We at Samsung are open to discussing how to tackle important, common problems with researchers from all over the world, and we hope that the Samsung AI Forum can help facilitate that goal.”

This was followed by a keynote speech from Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, the co-chair of the Samsung AI Forum and a Samsung AI Professor. During his speech, Professor Bengio introduced a new machine learning tool called GFlowNets.

After explaining how the algorithms could be applied to the development of new drugs, he emphasized how “We find that [the model] converges to good solutions faster than other methods, and in addition, it finds a more diverse set of solutions. So this is very encouraging, and we are very excited about the potential applications in discovery in general.” After finishing his speech, the professor discussed ways to apply the algorithms during a Q&A session that featured scientists from around the world.

The keynote was followed by three technology sessions entitled “Scalable & Sustainable AI Computing”, “AI for Scientific Discovery” and “Trustworthy Computer Vision”. During these sessions, leading academics and startups spoke alongside some of Samsung’s top researchers.

Professors Kunle Olukotun of Stanford University, Gerbrand Ceder of the University of California – Berkeley and Antonio Torralba of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shared key findings in their respective areas of AI research. Founders of startups based in Silicon Valley, including Andrew Feldman, CEO of Cerebras Systems, Bryce Meredig, CSO of Citrine Informatics and Daniel Bibireata, Vice President of Landing AI, presented insights on business models for various areas of AI research, as well as future business strategies. Representing Samsung were multiple leading researchers, including Changkyu Choi, Senior Vice President and Head of SAIT’s AI & SW Research Center, who introduced the company’s vision for AI and summarized the progress it has made through its research in the field.

The event also showcased rising talents and researchers in the field of AI. Samsung revealed this year’s five winners of the Samsung AI Researcher of the Year award, which was launched last year to recognize promising global AI researchers.

“I’m especially thankful to my students, whose work is really what’s being rewarded here,” said Professor Phillip Isola of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who received the award. “We’re trying to make progress to make AI systems that are closer to [reaching] human-like [and] animal-like abilities,” he added, describing natural intelligence.

“My research lies at the intersection of computer vision and machine learning, and my overall goal is to create vision systems that are reliable and accessible for everyone,” added Professor Judy Hoffman of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

For the Coexistence of Humans and AI

Day one of the forum closed with a panel discussion in which academics engaged in lively conversations and shared their insights. The panel’s moderator, Youngsang Choi, Vice President of SAIT, introduced topics related to each panelist’s area of expertise. After the discussion, participants were given free rein to ask the panelists questions.

One participant asked the panelists if they believed that it would be possible for AI algorithms to achieve human-level data efficiency in training, to which Professor Antonio Torralba said yes.

“When we think about the data that humans have, it’s not just visual data. They really sense the world through a lot of different mechanisms,” Professor Torralba explained. “Also, humans actually are not passive observers of the world. They are actually interacting with the world and performing all kinds of experiments. I think, in order to achieve [a human-like] level of efficiency, we need to incorporate all of these things and make them really like the main characters of the movie that AI is playing now.”

The panel discussion also offered an opportunity for students majoring in AI-related fields to share their concerns with the experts and receive advice. In the field of AI natural language processing (NLP), for example, the number of parameters is continuously increasing, which means that the costs required to train a model are too. Considering these circumstances, participants discussed which way academic research should be heading.

Professor Bengio concluded the panel discussion by offering some insightful advice to young AI researchers and students. “Don’t be afraid to go in directions that are very different from what has been established as state of the art,” said the professor. “Brain power is the thing that’s really behind innovation and [the] amazing progress that science brings us. So don’t be afraid to try things [and] don’t be afraid to question what has been apparently established for years or decades. That’s how we are all going to make progress.”

Samsung AI Forum Day Two

The Latest AI Research, All in One Place

Day two of the forum was hosted by Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Consumer Electronics and IT & Mobile Communications divisions. Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, emphasized that “AI is a technology that makes people’s lives better,” and offered an overview of the various AI-related projects that Samsung Research was engaged in, including those related to smartphone cameras, on-device AI, Open Source AI System Software, Machine Translation, and AI technologies for robots. “I’m really looking forward to today’s lectures by leading researchers in AI,” said Dr. Seung, heightening viewers’ expectations.

The day began with a keynote from Professor Leslie Valiant of Harvard University, who offered details on how to augment supervised learning with reasoning. “To make AI work, it takes several components,” Professor Valiant explained. “The first component is identifying which phenomenon or functionality you want to realize.”

Next came lectures delivered by academics who have been actively leading AI research. These include Professor Felix Heide of Princeton University, Research Scientist Been Kim of Google Brain and Professor Max Welling, a research chair in machine learning at the University of Amsterdam and a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research.

AI’s Evolution Into a Tool for Gaining Insights

Day two’s panel discussion saw experts share their opinions on how AI technology will impact people’s lives in the future. The panel’s moderator, Dr. Daniel D. Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Samsung Research’s Global AI Center, kicked off the discussion with a question.

“The first time AI came into presence, there was a lot of emphasis at that time on logical reasoning,” Dr. Lee explained. “But now, data-driven approaches such as deep neural networks are rising. And what we just heard from Leslie’s talk was [about] how we can actually use the logic [now] in combination with these more advanced neural network techniques. What would be the big advantage of doing that kind of return, in some sense, to logic with neural networks?”

“The idea that both learning and logic are important has been understood for a long time, [albeit separately],” Professor Valiant explained. “We are in a good position because I think the position of learning is now very much advanced. So, we have reason to be confident that there’s a lot of competence that we have as far as learning, and it’s a good basis on which to build logic.”

Researcher Efi Tsamoura of the Samsung AI Center in Cambridge added that “An increasing number of applications for many different areas, from computer vision to natural language processing, are taking advantage of background knowledge in order to build more robust and simpler models. Why is that? It’s because logic provides us with the ability to [complement] missing labels and to use the missing labels in order to train the model.” Tsamoura also pointed out that “An increasing number of researchers from different fields, mostly applied fields, are realizing the potential of logic.”

The discussion also touched on scientific discoveries that have been made with machine learning. “I think it’s worth noting that with the advent of 5G and with 6G coming down the pipe, communication networks have gone from being extremely complicated to super-extremely complicated… and I think the opportunities to optimize and manage the systems to make them even more efficient are vast. So I think there is a great chance to bring machine learning and AI tools to bear on the structure and operation of these communication networks to make them more efficient,” said Gregory Dudek, Head of the Samsung AI Center in Montreal. “We’ve had some very nice success in Montreal in adapting the tools that exist to these relatively new problems for that domain, and [have] actually significantly moved the needle to increase the performance of these systems.”

In order to commercialize machine learning for use in various areas, continuous simulations must be conducted. How then can the gap between simulation results and real-world phenomena be narrowed? Professor Welling shared his thoughts: “[Since simulations do not actually reflect all the complexities of the world,] I think probably the solution is some hybrid solution where you would simulate as much as you can, but you also identify where your system is uncertain about its predictions. And at that point, sort of in an active sense, you are then going to acquire data for that particular problem. So, active sensing might be an interesting solution.”

At the Lightning Talks session, employees from Samsung Research’s Global AI Centers presented some of their latest research including Adaptive Sharpness-Aware Minimization(ASAM), which is a deep learning optimizer developed by Samsung Research, and Named Entity Correction for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR).

The thoughts and findings that were shared at the Samsung AI Forum indicate that a world in which AI is merged seamlessly with our daily lives may not be that far off. Full replays of both days of the Samsung AI Forum 2021, through which viewers can learn more about the current status of AI technology, its applications, and what the future may hold, can be viewed on the event’s official website and on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel.

The second day of the event, hosted by Samsung Research, the advanced R&D hub of the company that leads the development of future technologies for Samsung Electronics’ Consumer Electronics division and IT & Mobile Communications division, facilitated discussion around how industry experts and academics alike can further research into AI technologies that directly impact and enhance the lives of all people. It was livestreamed on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel, providing opportunities for researchers and students in the AI field around the world to interact with world-renowned academics through Live Panel Discussions.

AI Forum Day 2: Exploring ‘AI’ in a Human World

Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, began his opening speech by emphasizing that “Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing every single R&D area of Samsung Research. AI technology was thought impossible, but is now becoming a reality and makes people’s lives better.”

During his speech, which introduced Samsung Research’s various areas of AI research, Dr. Seung explained how on-device AI technology is enabling smartphone cameras to offer users new ways to express their creativity and manage other devices such as TVs and air conditioners. He also provided insights into other applications for AI technology, which includes enabling robot vacuums to automatically create indoor 3D maps, detect obstacles and clean a space accordingly.

Dr. Seung concluded his speech by describing his excitement to see what Samsung’s researchers would be presenting and inviting participants to follow Samsung Research’s Twitter account to learn more about the innovative research that the R&D hub is conducting.

Seung’s speech was followed by presentations from world-renowned AI experts who are leading research in their respective fields.

First, Professor Leslie Valiant of Harvard University, the recipient of the 2010 Turing Award – often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computing – delivered the day’s keynote lecture, entitled “How to Augment Supervised Learning with Reasoning”. Using robust logic as an example, Professor Valiant emphasized that combining supervised learning and reasoning should be a key focus for the next generation of machine learning technology.

Professor Valiant’s keynote was followed by a presentation from Professor Felix Heide of Princeton University. Professor Heide’s presentation, entitled “The Differentiable Camera”, discussed the camera technology that utilizes deep learning to enhance image quality.

Next, research scientist Been Kim of Google Brain delivered a presentation entitled “Interpretability for Skeptical Minds”, in which she shared the latest advancements in interpretable machine learning and proposed directions that this cutting-edge technology should be heading.

The last session of the day was led by Professor Max Welling, a research chair in machine learning at the University of Amsterdam and a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft Research. During his presentation, entitled “Understanding Matter With Deep Learning”, Professor Welling shared why he is so excited about the scientific breakthroughs that will come from utilizing deep learning in molecular simulation.

Other highlights of Day 2 included a Lightning Talks session, which saw engineers from Samsung Research’s Global AI Center present some of their latest research, and a live panel discussion that was moderated by Dr. Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Samsung Research Global AI Center.

In case you missed it, you can watch a full replay of day two of the Samsung AI Forum 2021 by heading to Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel.

Now in its fifth year, Samsung AI Forum serves as a platform that gathers leading experts to exchange the latest technology trends and research findings. The two-day event held on 1 and 2 November (KST) enabled participants to discuss applications of AI that will make a practical contribution to people’s daily lives. In this year’s AI Forum livestreamed on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel, there were opportunities for researchers and students in the AI field around the world to interact with world-renowned academics and experts through Q&A sessions.

Day 1 of Samsung AI Forum was hosted by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Samsung’s R&D hub dedicated to cutting-edge future technologies, under the theme, “AI Research for Tomorrow”.

Day 1 started with opening remarks from Dr. Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman & CEO of Device Solutions at Samsung Electronics, who spoke about the wide-reaching capability of AI to address pressing global issues.

“The advancement of AI is going beyond the electronics industry and expanding to various fields, such as basic science. We expect AI to provide solutions to social issues such as climate change and environmental pollution in the future, but there are still many challenges to tackle to make this possible,” said Dr. Kim.

He also shared his optimism that Samsung AI Forum will be a key venue for experts across the industry to start conversations and collaborate on AI as a means to help humanity on various fronts.

Shining a Spotlight on AI Leaders

Also on Day 1 of Samsung AI Forum, the company announced this year’s winners of the ‘Samsung AI Researcher of the Year’ awards. The awards were launched last year to discover rising AI researchers globally. The awards were presented by Dr. Gyoyoung Jin, President and Head of SAIT, who served as the co-chair for Samsung AI Forum.

This year’s awards went to Professor Diyi Yang (Georgia Tech), Professor Jacob Andreas (MIT), Professor Judy Hoffman (Georgia Tech), Professor Phillip Isola (MIT) and Professor Yarin Gal (Oxford).

“It’s an honor for me to receive the award presented by Samsung to young researchers in the AI field,” said Professor Phillip Isola of MIT. “I’ll put more effort to further develop the current AI system to realize AI that is close to natural intelligence,” he said. Professor Isola is one of the most prominent researchers in computer vision.

Expert Highlights: Keynote Speeches

The keynote on the first day of Samsung AI Forum was given by Professor Yoshua Bengio of University of Montreal, who also served as a co-chair of Samsung AI Forum and is a Samsung AI Professor. In his keynote, entitled GFlowNets for Scientific Discovery, Professor Bengio introduced AI algorithms used within scientific fields such as physics, chemistry and biology. He presented a new algorithm called GFlowNets, which is used to increase the prediction accuracy of experiment and test data.

The keynote lecture was followed by three technology sessions entitled Scalable & Sustainable AI Computing, AI for Scientific Discovery and Trustworthy Computer Vision. In these sessions, leading academics and startups spoke alongside some of Samsung’s top researchers.

Professor Kunle Olukotun of Stanford University in the U.S., who is the co-founder of a promising AI startup called SambaNova Systems, shared his insights on ultra-low power AI computing through an effective data flow architecture in his lecture, Accelerating AI with Dataflow Computing.

Professor Gerbrand Ceder of University of California – Berkeley, who is the founding director of the U.S. federal government-led Material Genome Initiative, which began ten years ago, gave his lecture on AI/Machine Learning in Material Research and the Laboratory of the Future. Professor Antonio Torralba of MIT in Massachusetts, U.S., gave his lecture, Learning to See.

From Samsung, multiple leading researchers, including Changkyu Choi, Senior Vice President and Head of SAIT’s AI & SW Research Center presented the progress and vision regarding Samsung’s research in the AI field. The speakers introduced various AI learning model developments and their applications, and suggested the memory-powered computing architecture, including engineering ultra-low power AI computing for processing AI models and big data.

In addition, founders of startups based in Silicon Valley, including Cerebras Systems shared their insights on business models for different AI research areas and future business strategies.

‘Samsung AI Forum 2021′ can be viewed again on Samsung Electronics’ YouTube channel, and Day 2 AI forum will be held on 2 November.

Stay tuned to Samsung Newsroom for more information on the Samsung AI Forum 2021.

Day 1: AI Research for Tomorrow

On Day 1, which will be hosted by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Samsung’s R&D hub dedicated to cutting-edge future technologies, Dr. Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman & CEO of Device Solutions at Samsung Electronics, will deliver the opening remarks. Under the theme, “AI Research for Tomorrow”, renowned AI experts will discuss various AI technologies and the research direction on AI — from fundamental research to its applications – including how AI research will impact other fields such as new material development and semiconductors.

This year, Professor Yoshua Bengio, the winner of the 2018 Turing Award — often referred to as the Nobel Prize in computing — will deliver the keynote. The keynote speech will be followed by three technology sessions: Scalable and Sustainable AI Computing, AI for Scientific Discovery and Trustworthy Computer Vision.

In particular, in this year’s forum, various AI startups will provide an overview of the current trends in cutting-edge AI technology and share their actual business application models. In addition, the AI research leaders at SAIT will participate in the forum as speakers and give presentations on the current status and vision of Samsung’s AI research.

The Samsung AI Researcher of the Year awards,¹ which were established last year in an effort to discover excelling rising researchers in the field of AI, will also be presented during the forum. Last year, five researchers including Professor Kyunghyun Cho of New York University were awarded.

As the co-chairs of this year’s forum, Dr. Gyoyoung Jin, President and Head of SAIT and Professor Bengio, who was appointed as the Samsung AI Professor last year, will continue to cooperate to highlight outstanding rising researchers and expand the base of AI research.

“This year’s forum will be organized as a venue for sharing the current status of AI technology research and AI applications as well as discussing ways to transform AI into a technology that substantially contributes to our daily lives,” said Professor Bengio.

Day 2: AI in a Human World

Day 2 sessions will be hosted by Samsung Research, the company’s advanced R&D hub that leads the development of future technologies for its Consumer Electronics division and IT & Mobile Communications division. Under the theme “AI in a Human World”, Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, will deliver the opening remarks, and AI experts who have been actively engaging in AI research activities worldwide will share their insights on the current status of AI and future research directions that will have an important impact on our lives.

The keynote will be delivered by Professor Leslie Valiant, the 2010 Turing Award winner, of Harvard University on the subject of integrating machine learning and inference for next-generation AI. This will be followed by technology sessions: Interpretability for Skeptical Minds and Understanding Matter With Deep Learning.

Dr. Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Samsung Research Global AI Center, will preside over an in-depth panel discussion with the speakers regarding the ‘future prospects and considerations of each AI sector’.

Lightning talks (5-minute speeches, 7 sessions) will also take place this year where members of the Samsung Research Global AI Center and 5 AI centers (Cambridge, U.K.; New York, U.S.; Toronto, Canada; Montreal, Canada; and Moscow, Russia) will take part.

“This year’s AI Forum will help us better understand where the current AI technology developments are heading and also about AI applicable products which are becoming smarter,” said Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research. “I expect that many people who are interested in AI will participate in the forum since it will be held as an online event this year.”

The event will be open to anyone who is interested in AI. Registration is available through the Samsung AI Forum 2021 Website from October 6 to the respective event dates.

Day 1 Session Speakers

“Scalable and Sustainable AI Computing” session by:

– Professor Kunle Olukotun, Stanford University

– Andrew Feldman, CEO of Cerebras Systems

– Changkyu Choi, Corporate Senior Vice President of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT)

“AI for Scientific Discovery” session by:

– Professor Gerbrand Ceder, University of California, Berkeley

– Bryce Meredig, CSO of Citrine Informatics

– Young Sang Choi, Corporate Vice President of SAIT

“Trustworthy Computer Vision” session by:

– Professor Antonio Torralba, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

– Daniel Bibireata, Vice President of LandingAI

– Jae-Joon Han, Vice President of Technology of SAIT

Day 2 Session Speakers

“Interpretability for Skeptical Minds” session by:

– Been Kim, Research Scientist at Google Brain

“Understanding Matter With Deep Learning” session by:

– Professor Max Welling, Amsterdam University and Lab Head of Microsoft Research Amsterdam

¹ Samsung AI Researcher of the Year: selected among AI researchers of aged 35 or under (up to five researchers per year)

The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a group of standards organizations that developed the 5G telecommunications standards already commercialized worldwide, plans to develop 5G-Advanced (Rel-18*) from 2022 to enhance 5G performance including increased telecommunications coverage, and to expand new 5G services, such as Extended Reality (XR) media and integration with satellite communications.
* Rel-18 (5G-Advanced Standard; from March 2022): 5G evolution standards before moving into 6G

Jaeyeon Song, Principal Engineer at Samsung Research (the company’s advanced R&D hub that leads the development of future technologies for its Consumer Electronics division and IT & Mobile Communications division), and Narendranath Durga Tangudu, Staff Engineer at Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore, were elected as vice-chairs of 3GPP SA WG4 (Service and System Aspects Working Group 4) and 3GPP CT WG3 (Core Network and Terminals Working Group 3), respectively.

3GPP SA4 is a Working Group that develops technologies for 5G-based video streaming and delivery of immersive media, such as XR. Dr. Jaeyeon Song was elected as vice-chair in recognition of her activities and expertise associated with MPEG (which develops video codec and media systems standards) and ATSC (which develops digital broadcasting standards), both of which work closely with 3GPP SA4.

The 3GPP CT3 Working Group focuses on open interface standards that open up 5G networks to third parties, such as Internet service providers (ISPs). The Working Group recognized Narendranath Durga Tangudu’s achievements in edge computing standards, which enables low latency transmission when 5G networks are connected to ISPs.

“In order to enable 5G-based differentiated services, mobile communication systems should evolve in such a way that it can support new media such as XR, and also that it can closely interact with external services,” said Sunghyun Choi, SVP & Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research. “Along with the reinforcement of our leadership within 3GPP this year, we will continue to strengthen our efforts in developing next-generation mobile communications technologies as well as technologies that will expand the 5G ecosystem’s horizon.”

In addition to the appointments of vice-chairs in the SA4 and CT3 Working Groups, Samsung had earlier secured the chair position in the RAN1 Working Group in May this year. Samsung is set to be at the forefront of technological innovations that will improve 5G performance as well as technological developments that will help expand the 5G ecosystem. Based on its leadership established in 3GPP, Samsung is planning to lead 5G-Advanced (i.e., next-generation 5G) standardization, while preparing to take the initiative in future 6G standards.

With global studios in Seoul, Korea, San Francisco, U.S. and Milan, Italy, the Experience and Insight Lab (E&I Lab) – a new division of Samsung Research, an advanced R&D hub that leads the development of future technologies for Samsung’s consumer product business – was created to help bring that future to fruition.

△ Federico Casalegno, Senior Vice President and Head of the Experience and Insight (E&I) Lab

Examining Experiences and Why They Matter

New technologies are offering consumers increasingly more sophisticated experiences, but in some cases they can also overwhelm users with their complexity. This is important to note given that in the near future, it is predicted that we will average more than 20 connected devices per person and almost 40 per household.¹ This is why we must focus on experiences first, rather than products themselves.

I define an experience as the journey customers take with products and solutions, which includes the emotional journey that they take over time. The experiences are not about the technology, which is a component of the experience, but about how customers holistically interact with solutions (including products, services and spaces) over time.

These journeys of holistic interactions are precisely what the E&I Lab has been tasked with exploring. Focusing our efforts on examining those journeys will help ensure that the experiences we develop better serve people’s needs. It will also enable us to make users’ experiences with their products and services both smoother and more satisfying.

Having a meal at home provides a simple way to understand what we mean by experiences in this context. The memories we make while enjoying great food with family and friends can be some of the finest experiences of our lives. We remember our dinner experience and the laughs and warm atmosphere with friends and family, but our memories don’t focus on the app we may have used to pay for the meal, or the devices we used to whip it up. While we can focus on designing the best products, supported by cutting-edge technologies, we need to remember that those products are not the experience in and of themselves; they simply help enable that experience. People don’t just buy products; they buy the experiences that those products enable.

Transaction-centric companies tend to design technologies first and then look for ways to sell them to people. An experience-driven company must be willing to forego creating a new technology, or even abandon one it has created, no matter how impressive it may be, if people don’t need it to enable the desired experiences.

To make this difference between using a technology and enjoying an experience even clearer, I’d like you to consider the step counter on your smartphone or wearable device. From an engineering perspective, we tend to think about step counters in terms of how they work and how accurate they are. To be sure, achieving precision and accuracy are difficult and certainly important. But to users, those factors are in the background; ideally, they are invisible. When we adopt a human-centric design perspective, we consider what counting steps means to users – that is, how the experience adds to their lives beyond simply counting steps. We ask, “What does step-counting technology empower users to do? What kinds of things – tech-related or not – matter to people who count their steps?”

Our approach to design is unique in that it aims to bridge the gap between great technological advances, design, and human needs. Drawing from a deep understanding of people’s lifestyles, our approach places users front and center at the earliest stages of the innovation process. We examine Samsung Research technologies through a user-centric lens, and we use the insights we acquire to develop solutions that streamline users’ lives with meaningful experiences.

△ Members of Samsung Research’s Experience and Insight (E&I) Lab

Introducing a New Samsung Research Lab

The E&I Lab’s mission is to help the company better understand people’s needs, aspirations and lifestyles in order to craft meaningful experiences through innovative products and cutting-edge technologies. We do this by monitoring emerging trends and cultural shifts, and discovering social and technological changes, and we use these insights to design, prototype, deploy, learn and deliver.

Our goal is to work with and learn from consumers to explore what technologies should do rather than what they could do. We focus on innovation from the perspective of humans and humanity, and we bring that perspective to bear in Samsung Research’s technologies.

The E&I Lab and its multidisciplinary team’s new approach to research and development is centered on creating experiences for people. The “insight” part of our lab’s name refers to how we identify customer needs based on a deep understanding of people’s values, behaviors, and lifestyles, and develop insights so we can design solutions that satisfy those needs.

Factors once considered unrelated to design suddenly become critical when taking a human-centric approach to technological design. These include not just socioeconomic trends and issues, but also multiculturalism, gender inclusion, and a host of other considerations. Central to our concept of design are the beliefs that we must always account for the fact that we live in a complex ecosystem with people of various cultures and views, and that our planet and environment must always be taken into consideration.

The best technology is created based on a deep understanding of why humans need technology in the first place. Our lab seeks to promote a new way of thinking – one based on the idea that people do not adopt products or services based merely on specs or features. For example, people don’t want a camera per se; they may want it because they love storytelling, and they want the experience of capturing and sharing moments that a camera provides.

We recognize that this is a new way of thinking, one that celebrates our passion for great technology while at the same time confronting the reality that technology often turns out to be little more than perfection without purpose. That happens when we fail to put human progress at the very core of our objectives. This kind of progress comes from the synergy between technological advances and human-centric design, which can unlock infinite possibilities in terms of offering people delightful experiences.

We aim to achieve that synergy by leveraging Samsung’s incredible engineering capabilities and what we bring to the table as designers, having adopted this focus on experiences and people’s wants and needs. That synergy will establish Samsung as the leader in an experience-driven world – one that genuinely learns from and works for consumers.

Our Approach

What does the E&I Lab’s human-centric approach to design look like? Once we have a clear idea of the people for whom we are designing and the meaningful experiences that our technologies can enable, we set out to create whatever is called for.

Our work requires rapid prototyping and deploying, which enable us to make an idea tangible. We go beyond the traditional prototyping of things and instead we prototype “problems” – that is, the questions we are trying to answer, or the needs and desires for experiences we are trying to fulfill.

Designers are problem solvers, and good designs begin by first identifying the problems we need to solve. This makes it possible to identify what people genuinely want. Only when we believe we’ve found the problem should we start prototyping and engineering any sort of solution, including a space, an interaction, or even a story. After all, a prototype is all about what a design could be, not necessarily what it should or will be.

In essence, this sort of prototyping requires us to codesign with the people for whom we innovate. It encourages feedback early and often, and it offers us opportunities to learn and improve. Our human-centric approach deliberately breaks the boundaries of established disciplines to escape the confines of technology-driven design. It is multidisciplinary because humanity transcends types, and because the experiences we want to enable are complex and holistic.

It’s Time to Rethink How We Design Experiences

The world has changed. Today, you can’t lead technologically if you aren’t also leading culturally, with purpose and humanity in mind. The E&I Lab’s perspective is based on a belief that a tech company can be considered a leader only if it is human- and humanity-centric.

This has tremendous implications for design, as I’ve attempted to explain here. If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that people don’t need better technologies per se, and they certainly don’t need more bells and whistles. They need technologies that help them live better and enable them to achieve their dreams. That is why the E&I Lab wants to redefine experiences in design from a technological standpoint.

Design plays a distinct role in advancing knowledge and creating benefits for humanity. It sparks and complements innovation in the arts, sciences, and technology. Now more than ever, successful designs must be defined by the degree to which they reflect a deeper understanding of humanity’s social and environmental needs.

The E&I Lab breaks boundaries by taking a big-picture view and identifying designs, as opposed to technologies, that the market may be missing. Our process combines problem-solving with critical reflection, and engages with people from the very beginning in order to produce technologies that fulfill their needs and goals rather than our own.

We look forward to harmonizing the E&I Lab’s goals with the work of Samsung engineers around the globe.

¹ Brent Heslop, “By 2030, Each Person Will Own 15 Connected Devices – Here’s What That Means for Your Business and Content,” MarTech Advisor, March 4, 2019

Samsung Electronics today announced that Hyoungjin Choi, Principal Engineer at Samsung Research was appointed as the Chair of the Vision Group on IMT towards 2030 and beyond (6G) at the International Telecommunication Union – Radiocommunication (ITU-R) Working Party 5D, WP 5D Assembly, held online from March 1 to 12.

The 6G Vision Group was newly launched at the recent ITU-R meeting. The group is in charge of establishing the 6G Vision, which includes defining the key capabilities, working on technology development, and creating timelines on standardization and commercialization of 6G.

At ITU-R, Samsung Electronics has been recognized for its advanced technology and its contribution to the standardization of 5G as the Chair of 5G Vision. Samsung will continue to show its leadership within the ITU-R’s 6G standardization efforts.

Samsung Research, the company’s advanced R&D hub that leads the development of future technologies for its SET (consumer product) Business, covers various aspects related to 6G research as stated in its 6G White Paper. These include technical and societal megatrends, new services, requirements, candidate technologies and an expected timeline of standardization. To accelerate research for 6G, Samsung Research also founded its Advanced Communications Research Center in 2019.

“Samsung has been leading global efforts regarding 6G through our activities, including publishing the 6G White Paper in July 2020,” said Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research. “We plan to continue our active participation and contribute to the development of standards for the ITU-R 6G Vision as well as the 3GPP technical specification.”

ITU-R is an international decision-making body that is in charge of radiocommunication regulations with 193 member states. It also manages global mobile telecommunication standards and has provided guidance and roadmap for next generation communication R&D by defining the vision for next generation mobile telecommunication, such as 4G and 5G. Starting with completing the 6G Vision by 2023, ITU-R plans to develop technical requirements and recommendations for 6G through industry standards organizations such as 3GPP. Out of those candidate technologies for 6G, the technologies that pass ITU-R’s evaluation will be approved as the global standards for 6G around 2030.

This November 2 and 3, experts, researchers and interested viewers alike convened virtually to share the latest developments in AI research and discussed some of the most pressing and relevant issues facing AI research today.

Making the Best Use of AI in a Rapidly Changing World

AI technologies have developed remarkably in recent years, thanks in no small part to the hard work and diverse research projects being done by academic and corporate researchers alike all around the world. But given the rapid and significant changes brought on by the recent global pandemic, attention has recently been turning to how AI can be used to help solve real-life problems, and what methods might be most effective in order to create such solutions.

The first day of the forum, organized by the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), was opened with a keynote speech by Dr. Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman and CEO of Device Solutions at Samsung Electronics, who acknowledged the importance of the discussions set to take place at this year’s AI Forum around the past, present and future of the role of AI. Dr. Kim also affirmed Samsung Electronics’ dedication to working with global researchers in order to develop products and services with meaningful real-world impact.

The first day of the Forum then continued with a series of fascinating invited talks given by several global leading academics and professionals. Professor Yoshua Bengio of University of Montreal, Professor Yann LeCun of New York University and Professor Chelsea Finn of Stanford University were the first three to present, following which the Samsung AI Researcher of the Year awards were presented. After this ceremony, SAIT Fellow Professor Donhee Ham of Harvard University, Dr. Tara Sainath of Google Research and Dr. Jennifer Wortman Vaughan of Microsoft Research gave their talks.

Taking AI to the Next Phases of its Development

The first day’s invited talks were followed by a virtual live panel discussion, moderated by Young Sang Choi, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, and attended by Professor Bengio, Professor LeCun, Professor Finn, Dr. Sainath, Dr. Wortman Vaughan and Dr. Inyup Kang, President of Samsung Electronics’ System LSI business. “It is my great pleasure to join this Forum,” noted Dr. Kang. “I feel as if I am standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Questions were given to the panel that invited the experts to discuss the ways in which computational bottlenecks can be overcome in order to take AI systems to the next level and be developed to possess the same intelligibility as the human brain. The panelists weighed the benefits of scaling neural nets as opposed to searching for new algorithms, with Dr. Kang noting that, “We have to try both. Given the scale of human synapses, I doubt that we can achieve the human level of intelligibility using just current technologies. Eventually we will get there, but we definitely need new algorithms, too.”

Professor LeCun noted how AI research is not just constrained by current scaling methods. “We are missing some major pieces to being able to reach human-level intelligence, or even just animal-level intelligence,” he said, adding that perhaps, in the near future, we might be able to develop machines that can at least reach the scale of an animal such as a cat. Professor Finn concurred with Professor LeCun. “We still don’t even have the AI capabilities to make a bowl of cereal,” she noted. “Such basic things are still beyond what our current algorithms are capable of.”

Building on the topic of his invited talk, Professor Bengio added that, in order for future systems to have intelligence comparable to that of the way humans learn as children, a world model will need to be developed that is based on unsupervised learning. “Our models need to act like human babies in order to go after knowledge in an active way,” he explained.

The panel discussion then moved on to the ways in which the community can bridge the gaps between current technologies and future, human-intelligence level technologies, with all the experts agreeing that there is still much work to be done in developing systems that mimic the way human synapses work. “A lot of current research directions are trying to address these gaps,” reassured Professor Bengio.

Next, the panel shared their thoughts on how to make AI ‘fairer’ given the inherent biases possessed by today’s societies, with the experts debating the balance that needs to be struck between systems development reform, institutional regulation and corporate interest. Dr. Wortman Vaughan made the case for introducing a diversity of viewpoints across all parts of the system building process. “I would like to see regulation around processes for people to follow when designing machine learning systems rather than trying to make everyone meet the same outcomes.”

The final question given to the panel asked for their thoughts on which field will be the next successful application area for end-to-end models. “End-to-end models changed the field of speech recognition by reducing latency and removing the need for internet connection,” noted Dr. Sainath. “Thanks to this breakthrough, going forward, you’re going to see applications of end-to-end models for such purposes as long meeting transcriptions. We always speak of having ‘one model to rule them all’, and this is a challenging and interesting research area that has been expanded by the possibilities of end-to-end models as we look to develop a model capable of recognizing all the languages in the world.”

Enhancing Human Experience through AI

The second day of the AI Forum 2020 was hosted by Samsung Research, the advanced R&D hub of Samsung Electronics that leads the development of future technologies for the company’s end-product business.

In his opening keynote speech, Dr. Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Research, outlined the areas in which Samsung has been accelerating its AI research to the end of providing real-world benefits to their users, including more traditional AI fields (vision and graphics, speech and language, robotics), on-device AI and the health and wellness field.

After showcasing a range of Samsung products bolstered with AI technologies, Dr. Seung affirmed that, in order to best extend the capabilities of AI to truly help people in meaningful ways, academic researchers and corporations need to come together to find best-practice solutions.

Putting the Future of AI into Perspective

Following Dr. Seung’s speech, the second day of the Forum proceeded with a series of invited talks around the theme of ‘Human-Centric AI’ by Professor Christopher Manning of Stanford University, Professor Devi Parikh of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Subbarao Kambhampati of Arizona State University and Executive Vice President of Samsung Research Daniel D. Lee, Head of Samsung’s AI Center in New York and Professor at Cornell Tech.

The expert talks were followed by a live panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Seung and joined by Professor Manning, Professor Parikh, Professor Kambhampati and EVP Lee. Dr. Seung kicked off the discussion with a question about a topic raised in Professor Kambhampati’s speech around the potential issues that could lead to the risk of data manipulation as AI develops. “As AI technology continues to develop, it is important that we stay vigilant about the potential for manipulation and work to solve the issues of any AI systems’ inadvertent data manipulations,” explained Professor Kambhampati.

Dr. Seung then posed a much-requested viewer question to the panel. Given that one of the most practical concerns in AI research is the obtaining of data, the experts were asked whether they believe that companies or academic researchers need to develop new means of handling and managing data. Acknowledging that academics often struggle to secure data while companies possess alleviated data shortage problems yet elevated restraints around the usage of their data, Professor Parikh made a case for the need of new research methods that can be modeled with insufficient data or with cooperation between academia and industry, including open research methods. “In many areas, there are big public data sets available,” she noted. “Researchers outside of companies are able to access and use these. But further to this, some of the most interesting fields in AI today are the ones where we don’t have much data – these represent some of the most cutting-edge problems and approaches.”

The final question took the panel back to the theme of the AI Forum’s second day, ‘Human-Centered AI’, wherein the panelists were asked whether or not they believe that AI will be capable of equaling human intelligence in the next 70 years, since that is the period of time it has taken us to get to where we are today in the field of AI research. EVP Lee reasoned that AI still has a way to go – but that 70 years is a long time. “I am optimistic,” noted EVP Lee, “but there are lots of hard problems in the way. We need to have academics and companies working on a goal like this together.”

“We are currently reaching the limits of the range of problems we can solve using just lots of data,” summarized Professor Manning. “Before we see AI developments like this on a large scale, an area that we should emphasize is the production of AI systems that work for regular people, not just huge corporations,” he concluded.

The Samsung AI Forum 2020 ended with a warm thanks to all the esteemed experts who had taken part in the two-day Forum and a shared hope to hold next year’s Forum offline. All the sessions and invited talks from the AI Forum 2020 are available to watch on the official Samsung YouTube channel.