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

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

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

Q. What is this Don’t Forget Me app?

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

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

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

Q. How did you get interested in programming?

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

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

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

Q. How was the SDC?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Members of the Interaction Group at Visual Display (Samsung) and TEEM

Among the many SDKs, projects, and chips, one of the things that stood out was the Dreem Project (No, that’s not a typo; there are two e’s). Produced in collaboration between Samsung’s Interaction Group and TEEM, DreemGL is an opensource framework that helps developers build a room-scale, high-performance graphics experience. What does that mean? Well…

Frameworks Help Developers Simplify the Process of Composing Apps

Frameworks provide developers with support programs, compilers, code libraries, tools, etc. For example, if you want to make a switch to turn on a certain function within an app, you can refer to the code library and use previously set components instead of having to design and code the same structure over and over again.

A good framework can help dramatically boost the volume and quality of apps available in the market by enabling and encouraging developers to code more efficiently. There are many different frameworks for all kinds of platforms and devices when it comes to features and functions for the native environment (within the app, that is).

But the requirements change with the changing times. More and more apps now run across several screens and devices; and with the IoT era around the corner, the need for cross-device connectivity is growing. Another increasingly important factor is how to visualize the massive datasets coming from this network of devices and services in a way that satisfies users’ demand for rich graphical output. That’s where DreemGL comes in to play.

Beyond Mirroring – Multiple Screens, Users, and Roles

While most multi-screen solutions currently focus on mirroring – sharing content on one device to another – the future pushes for more than that. Instead of a simple host-client relationship, future services will involve multiple users on multiple screens, each playing a different role.

For example, say you want to play Texas Holdem across several screens, you could have the chips and community cards on the TV while each player has his/her hand on their private smartphones and tablets.

MusicSquare is another good example of how newer services may work: One TV is connected to multiple phones and tablets, allowing each user to assume the DJ role. Each connected user can provide feedback on the music and ultimately collectively create a whole new music experience.

MusicSquare was built using Dreem

These are dynamic environments involving many additional components including multiple devices, roles and customized UI design for each device. Dreem is meant to enable developers to describe such room-scale experiences all from a single source file. Thanks to DreemGL’s unique architecture you can manipulate the source code easily without disrupting the structure with a visual data flow editor. Once developers build a complex user scenario with DreemGL, they can easily change the flow of events with this visual editor or repurpose the same interaction pattern to interact with different types of data sets easily.

Prototyping for GPU-Accelerated Multi-Screen Experiences

Another aspect to take into consideration is that the UI on each screen is evolving to take advantage of faster Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) capabilities. Dreem is built to enable teams of designers and developers to collaborate on real, functional prototypes that explore not only multi-screen user experiences, but also the power of GPU-accelerated graphical UIs. Currently, to implement high-performance graphic UIs, developers need to work with OpenGL Shader Language (GLSL), a specialized complex language. With this low-level programming method, it is very difficult to build graphic experience that responses to lots of data coming from the network of devices and services. Dreem’s architectural breakthrough is that it lets developers to write Shader effect – a complex pixel-level graphical expression – with Javascript, a much approachable scripting language. The Dreem team thinks that this will lower the barrier for many developers to build high-quality graphic visualization projects.

Connecting Designers and Developers with Tools Like Flowgraph and Graphy

There are many different groups of people involved when developing apps and services; like planners, designers, developers, etc. Often times it is a challenge to get everyone to understand what’s going on. The features they need often differ as well. Dreem takes each of these players into consideration and aims to help better facilitate communication.

Flowgraph visualizes the connection between data and events

Flowgraph visualizes the connections between data and events, helping designers, developers and planners better span out their ideas. These connections can be changed on the spot. Graphy reflects the changes UX designers make in the code in real time, so developers don’t need to re-code everything all over.

Graphy allows designers to directly influence the code with its GUI tool

In building and supporting an open-source development framework for GPU-accelerated multi-screen prototyping, Samsung hopes to invite more creativity from across the developer community while preparing them for the upcoming requirements for cross-device, multi-screen, multi-user services as well as the hyper connected IoT.

Hungry for more? Below is a recorded session straight from SDC 2016, featuring the masters; Jinha Lee and Rik Arends:

Dreem project is an on-going effort rather than a finished stable framework. For more information on the project, visit: https://dreemproject.org/.

The SDC 2016 event, which ran April 27 and 28 in San Francisco, was one more example of Samsung’s dedication to inspiring young people to learn more about coding. The company organizes Solve for Tomorrow competitions and Mobile App Academies around the world and participates in a variety of coding initiatives, like the EU Code Week in Europe. As coding has become recognized as the new literacy, Samsung has developed programs designed to foster lifelong skills like critical thinking, creative problem-solving and collaboration.

Student from the United States, Argentina, and Korea met with Dongjin Koh, the President of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics.

Attending SDC 2016 from the United States was Emily Waite, a 12^th-grade student from Massachusetts and one of the winners of the 2015 US Mobile App Academy. Emily created Med Kid, an app to incentivize children with serious illnesses to take their medications. Each time a child takes their medicine, they get an in-app reward, turning a serious and sometimes difficult task into a fun game.

From Korea, Young Jun Lee came to explain his mobile app Don’t Forget Me, which helps families manage their household plants together, like remembering the watering schedule and recording the plants’ growth history. Lee was just 12 years old when he won the first Junior Software Cup in Korea in 2015 for his creative app. More than 1,000 teams entered the 2015 competition, which asked young people to create apps under the theme of “family.”

Young Jun Lee, the winner of Junior Software Cup from Korea, explains the app he developed to other young coders from the United States and Argentina.

From Argentina, three middle-school winners of the 2014 Solve for Tomorrow competition came to present their winning project, an app for improving evacuation during flood emergencies.  Not only did Samsung think their app was a winner, so did their local government, which added it to the local Civil Defense system to help protect people when the local Lujan River floods.

A student on the Solve for Tomorrow Argentina Team explains their winning app to developers.

All told, Samsung has run a variety of Coding Initiative projects in 14 countries, with more than 690,000 students participating. The goal is to make young people creators of technology, not just consumers, so they can actively participate in shaping their own futures.

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

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

Samsung Knox

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

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

Samsung Pay

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

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

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

Samsung Connect Auto

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

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

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

Samsung Health

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

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

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

Soundcamp

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

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

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

Samsung Gaming

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

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

Samsung VR

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

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

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

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

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

Samsung Electronics and Legrand today showcased, at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco, the world’s first Thread-enabled IoT light switch powered by the SAMSUNG ARTIK end-to-end platform.

The SAMSUNG ARTIK IoT platform is a fully integrated chip to cloud solution, which helps companies like Legrand speed up their product development process, reduce time to market, and improve total cost of ownership for their IoT products. Additionally, the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform provides world-class security from device to hub to cloud to data management, while adhering to the fundamental protocols of the Thread standard.

For Legrand, the SAMSUNG ARTIK IoT platform provided full support for the Thread standard, the foundation for the connected home. Thread was designed to easily and securely connect hundreds of devices to each other and to the cloud using real internet protocols over a low-power wireless mesh network. Built on open standards and with IPv6/6LoWPAN protocols, Thread’s innovative approach to networking offers many advantages over other wireless standards, including a secure and reliable mesh network with no single point of failure, simple connectivity and low power.

“Legrand is a world leader in home electrical devices and automation and we’re excited to partner with Samsung to offer more choices to our customers by delivering an industry leading, connected light switch,” said Brian DiBella, President Electrical Wiring Systems, Legrand, North America. “In combination with the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud, our smart light switches interoperate with other smart-home products and effectively serve as the central nervous system of the home to make life simpler, more convenient and more secure for our customers.”

World-class companies like Legrand can focus on their core areas of expertise—designing devices, applications, end-user experiences and services – while leveraging the SAMSUNG ARTIK end-to-end IoT platform to help them transition faster to the world of digitization.

“We are thrilled with the tight collaboration between Legrand and the SAMSUNG ARTIK development and business teams,” said Dr. Byungse So, Executive Vice President and CTO, Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center. “Embracing new technologies like IoT is critical to future success in the ever-demanding smart home and building automation space. By leveraging the strength of the ARTIK end-to-end IoT platform, Legrand will delivered the world’s first Thread enabled IoT smart light switch. Furthermore, Samsung is committed to investing in both technology and business solutions that enable companies like Legrand to fully participate in the digital transformation.”

As a leader in electrical and digital infrastructure solutions for all types of buildings, Legrand helps enhance everyday life for its customers. It partnered with Samsung because it understands that the Internet of Things will open a new era of connected buildings. Legrand’s Eliot program (Electricity and IoT) is designed to hasten the arrival of this era by speeding deployment of Legrand’s connected devices and accelerating the evolution of connected buildings. Eliot will power development of new Legrand products for the benefit of private and professional users alike.

The Legrand reference design demonstrations will be available at Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco. For more information or to schedule a meeting, please contact ssic@ssi.samsung.com

About SAMSUNG ARTIK Platform

Samsung ARTIK is an open platform designed to enable faster and simpler development of new enterprise, industrial and consumer applications for the Internet of Things. The platform is designed to deliver a superior end-to-end solution with integrated modules featuring best-in-class security, cloud connectivity, local intelligence and a wealth of partner applications through its rich developer ecosystem. Samsung ARTIK is designed to accelerate development of a new generation of better, smarter IoT devices, solutions and services. More information about Samsung ARTIK, partners and development tools can be found at www.artik.io.

About Legrand

Legrand is the global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructures.  Its comprehensive offering of solutions for use in commercial, industrial and residential markets makes it a benchmark for customers worldwide.  Innovation for a steady flow of new products with high added value is a prime vector for growth, including in particular connected devices stemming from Legrand’s global Eliot (Electricity and IoT) program. Legrand reported sales of $5.3 billion in 2015.  Legrand has a strong presence in North America, with a portfolio of well-known product lines that include C2G, Cablofil, Electrorack, Middle Atlantic, Nuvo, On-Q, Ortronics, Pass & Seymour, QMotion, Quiktron, Raritan, Vantage, Watt Stopper, and Wiremold.  Legrand is listed on Euronext Paris and is a component stock of indexes including the CAC40, FTSE4Good, MSCI World, ASPI, Corporate Oekom Rating and DJSI (ISIN code FR0010307819). www.legrand.com.

The SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud, along with the previously announced SAMSUNG ARTIK family of integrated IoT modules, enables faster and simpler development of new enterprise, industrial, and consumer applications. The SAMSUNG ARTIK modules and SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud are an open platform including a best-in-class family of integrated production-ready modules, advanced software, development boards, drivers, tools, security features, and cloud.

“Our vision for the ARTIK platform is an end-to-end experience that reduces the obstacles, challenges, and time-to-market for IoT solutions,” said Young Sohn, President & Chief Strategy Officer, Samsung Electronics. “We’re excited to announce the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud after three years of development and feedback from hundreds of developers. Unlike many other IoT cloud platforms, ARTIK Cloud breaks down data siloes between devices and enables a new class of IoT applications and services.  The launch of this exciting new platform not only signals Samsung’s foray into the cloud services market but reinforces our belief that, by creating powerful open platforms, we can harness the information generated by IoT to develop new insights and new approaches to address the major global challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Companies face numerous challenges when connecting different devices and cloud services together into unified experiences. These challenges include: collecting data from a diverse set of devices using a variety of protocols; enabling legacy, new, and third-party devices and cloud services to interact with each other with minimal effort; storing data from siloed devices in a single location and deriving meaningful insights; managing data security and privacy; and providing developers with easy-to-use APIs and tools.

“As more and more consumer IoT devices are created and brought to market, the need for interoperability becomes paramount as it is the key to creating more compelling and integrated experiences.  The need for an open cloud solution that can work with any connected device, and with other cloud services is critical for broader consumer adoption,” said BK Yoon, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics. “The launch of ARTIK Cloud is extremely exciting because it promises to not only help Samsung connect our diverse portfolio of products, but also enable other companies to participate in a growing IoT ecosystem.”

“SmartThings believes that having integrated experiences within one unified application will simplify the user experience across a wide range of devices and services,” said Alex Hawkinson, CEO of SmartThings. “It is hugely beneficial that the new Samsung ARTIK Cloud can easily add more devices and services that SmartThings users can immediately take advantage of. As SmartThings continues to expand our offering beyond the home, open solutions like ARTIK Cloud can bring more devices into our open ecosystem as we aim to deliver even more IoT benefits to our customers together.”

How SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud Empowers IoT Developers and Enterprise Customers

The SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud makes it extremely easy to connect all devices – those powered by ARTIK modules and by other modules. Using SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud, companies can securely collect, store, and act on any data from any connected device or cloud service. With easy-to-use, open APIs to ingest and query data, and powerful tools to visualize and act on the data, ARTIK Cloud empowers developers and solution providers to build new innovative IoT apps and services.

The SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud is highly scalable, with an architecture designed to support the billions of IoT devices expected in the next few years, while keeping latency low to enabling fast interactions. Key features of ARTIK Cloud include:

Device and Data Interoperability: Easily enable devices to communicate with other devices or cloud services.

• Device Manifests: Rapidly onboard any device using a universal language to describe device states and actions.
• Multi-Protocol Connectors: Connect any device to the cloud using multiple protocols – REST/HTTP, Websockets, MQTT, and CoAP.
• Cloud Connectors: Connect to any cloud service and collect data from it.
• Heterogeneous Data Collection: Collect any data (continuous, discrete, real time, or historical) from any device or 3rd party cloud.
• Two Way Communication: Securely exchange messages between device and cloud, even on low power devices such as wearables and end-node sensors.
• Data Normalization and Analytics: Gain fast access to data, statistics, and aggregations with multiple backends to store, replicate, and index data.

Security & Privacy: Secure device, app, and user interactions and protect data privacy

• Secure Device Registration: Securely connect devices to the cloud using TLS, secure element, and certificates issued by a trusted certificate authority.
• Authentication and Authorization: Secure every device, app, and user interaction with open Internet standards based authentication and authorization.
• Privacy Management: Protect data privacy with built-in identity and permissions management.

Developer Tools: Empower developers to build new IoT apps using easy-to-use, open APIs, SDKs, and tools

• Universal Data Access APIs: Collect, and query data from disparate devices using easy-to-use, open APIs.
• SDKs: Enable developers to easily build apps and services using a number of mobile and platform SDKs: Objective C / iOS, Java / Android, JavaScript, Swift, PHP, Python, Ruby, Scala, and C#; as well as Tizen 3.0 when released.
• Rules Engine: Easily trigger cross-device actions and alerts with a powerful built in rules engine.
• Visualization Tools: Visualize data from disparate devices in context.
• Developer Portal: Increase developer productivity with self-service access to rich API documentation, API console, blogs, samples, forums, and more.
• API-first: Manage and extend platform entities using built-in REST APIs.

Companies are reimagining how data from many connected devices can be used to build innovative apps and services. Legrand, a global leader in electrical and digital building infrastructures, is working with Samsung to connect the Legrand Cloud platform to the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud to drive the Internet of Things revolution in the building sector.

“Legrand is excited to partner with SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud to enable new smart solutions for buildings,” said Ernesto Santini, Legrand VP Innovation and Systems. “To be connected to the ARTIK Cloud is another step in our openness strategy, which aims to make Legrand’s legacy devices and new smart devices interoperable with other connected products, and increases the value we deliver to our users.”

Digibe Software is also embracing IoT and the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud. The company delivers products for the industrial Internet helping customers optimize assets and connect data from machines, databases and people in meaningful ways. “Digibe is excited to partner with ARTIK Cloud to connect the worlds of IoT and enterprise collaboration,” said Pierre Lecointre, co-founder and CTO of Digibe. “The APIs and developer tools in ARTIK Cloud helped us deliver, in less than 2 months, a solution to access siloed IoT asset data and trigger collaboration to address anomalies – directly from Salesforce.”

Any company – enterprises, start-ups, device makers, IoT operators, and developers – can initially start using the SAMSUNG ARTIK Cloud for free by visiting artik.cloud. Using simple pay-as-you-go tiered pricing, customers can upgrade to the tier of service that’s right for them.

Samsung is currently working with select enterprise customers. If you would like enterprise pricing, please contact us at artik.cloud/pricing.

Samsung Developer Conference 2016

The Samsung team supporting the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform will be at Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco showcasing demonstrations and technical sessions. For more information or to schedule a meeting, please contact ssic@ssi.samsung.com.

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

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

Internet of Things: Building the IoT Ecosystem

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

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

Entertainment Services & Virtual Reality:

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

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

Security Signature Services:

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

Citizenship Showcase: Young Coders from around the World

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

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

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

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

During the 2016 Samsung Smart TV session, the Samsung Smart View SDK will be introduced to developers as a new feature which enables seamless connection and communication between mobile devices and Samsung TVs. And, in an effort to enable Samsung partners to increase accessibility to their content, the new Smart TV SDK will feature a Preview title, which can be set to appear directly on the first screen of the Smart Hub.

Samsung is also making a new Smart TV-optimized payment solution, Samsung Checkout on TV, available to all developers. Previously, Samsung Checkout on TV has been offered to select key partners only. But following the announcement, all game and app developers will be able to create services that can accept payments from consumers and monetize efficiently and effectively on Samsung Smart TVs, the largest installed base of TVs in the world over the last decade.

A new open source project called TOAST was another developer resource introduced during the conference. This allows developers to target a broader range of devices such as 2012-2014 Smart TVs and prevents them from having to rewrite TV apps for different operating systems. TOAST will be extended to other operating systems including WebOS TV and Android TV.

“We are constantly aiming to advance the Smart TV viewing experience by streamlining how users access their favorite applications and smart content,” said Sang Kim, Vice President of Visual Display at Samsung Electronics. “Our new enhancements will not only improve the viewing experience for the user, but also for developers who are creating new content on a regular basis.”

Today, Samsung Knox, the award winning, defense-grade security platform, is expanding to offer a suite of purpose-built, innovative and intuitive business tools designed for the ways people want to work. The new Samsung Knox is taking the platform beyond mobile to serve as the foundation for all Samsung enterprise solutions and services.

“As we move closer each day to a world where all things are connected, strength of security has never been more important,” said DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “As a renowned mobile security platform with notable government certifications, placing Samsung Knox at the foundation of all solutions and services will deliver the infrastructure needed to advance Samsung’s commitment to the enterprise.”

Secure Compatibility with More Devices

An important step in the expansion of Samsung Knox is its security coverage for Samsung devices from flagship devices to many mid-tier devices including select smartphones and tablets. Additionally, Samsung Knox is available on wearable devices such as the Samsung Gear S2. This means many more Samsung device owners will be able to benefit with Samsung Knox’s defense-grade protection.

Platform Expansion to Drive Interoperability

Samsung Knox is designed with multi-platform interoperability to work with existing IT assets. This commitment to interoperability will now be extended beyond the Android operating system to include Samsung’s Tizen operating system. Samsung Knox also works seamlessly between Internet of Things solutions with a collection of open APIs and SDKs. In addition, Knox is supported by over 120 enterprise mobility management (EMM) providers worldwide, and performs with all popular single sign-on (SSO) and virtual private network (VPN) solutions to preserve enterprise legacy IT investments.

Beyond Security, Beyond Mobile

Since its launch in 2013, Samsung Knox has become a trusted and robust mobile security platform, protecting the device at every layer from hardware through software to application. With this next evolution, all Samsung enterprise solutions and services including healthcare, automotive, finance and other segments will be built on the Samsung Knox platform.

“Samsung Knox allows us to offer our customers a better way to manage security and increase productivity,” said Robert Schukai, Head of Applied Innovation, Thomson Reuters. “By partnering with Samsung, we can take advantage of a networked world by empowering people to see connections, use insights and make decisions when it counts. Samsung Knox is pushing forward our connected future.”

For more information about Samsung Knox, please visit www.samsung.com/samsungknox

Opening Keynote (Wednesday, April 27, 2016, 9:30am PST)

In this video from day one of SDC 2016, you can catch an address from DJ Koh, President of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, as well as talks from:

• Injong Rhee, EVP and Head of R&D, Software and Services, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung
• Curtis Sasaki, Vice President of Ecosystems and IoT General Manager, Samsung
• Sang Kim, Vice President, Business Development, Samsung
• Alex Hawkinson, Founder and CEO, SmartThings
• Emily Becher, Head of Samsung Accelerator, Global Innovation Center, Samsung

Inspirational Keynote (Thursday, April 28, 2016, 9:30am PST)

In this video from day two (April 28)’s inspirational keynote,  the agenda features speeches from:

• John Pleasants, Executive Vice President, Media Solutions Center America, Samsung
• David Kenny, General Manager, IBM Watson
• Eric P. Consolazio, Vice President, IT Customer Solutions and Innovations Group, Cigna
• Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow and Vice President, Corporate Strategy Office, Intel Corporation
• Monique Morrow, CTO, New Frontiers Engineering, Cisco
• Diane Tavenner, Founder and CEO, Summit Public Schools
• Maureen Fan, CEO and Co-Founder, Baobab Studios
• John Riccitiello, CEO, Unity

You can learn more about the SDC 2016 speakers here, and the full agenda here.

For more videos from SDC 2016, visit: Samsung Developer Conference 2016 YouTube Playlist.

* Updated on May 3rd, 2016 : Added recorded videos from the event.