C-Lab Inside: Four Projects From Samsung Employees To Debut

Since 2016, Samsung has been exhibiting its C-Lab Inside projects at Eureka Park, the main exhibition space for startups from around the world at CES. During the exhibition, the marketability and customer response will be gauged to enhance and further advance the startups’ projects. Those that have proven marketability will either transfer to an in-house division of Samsung or become spin-off projects that will be supported by the company.

The four C-Lab Inside projects that will be exhibited are:

• Piloto, an AI solution that helps children develop proper smartphone usage habits
• PROBA, an AI-based online exam service for administrators, test-takers and supervisors
• innovision, a nursery mobile for early detection of infant strabismus
• ZamStar, a smart electric guitar that makes learning guitar easy with LED guides

C-Lab Outside: Nine Startups That Are Ready for the Global Market

Created in October 2018, C-Lab Outside is a startup acceleration program that was launched to invigorate the startup ecosystem in South Korea. Startups enrolled in the C-Lab Outside program are provided with office workspaces, expert mentoring from Samsung employees, participation in global IT exhibitions, and financial and investor relations support.

Five startups that have been incubated directly by Samsung over the past year and four startups from the Daegu Center and the Gyeong-buk Center for Creative Economy & Innovation that are part of C-Lab Outside will also participate in CES 2022. They include:

• Petnow, an AI-based pet biometric recognition solution
• Digisonic, a 3D immersive audio solution for mobile devices
• Verses, an interactive metaverse music app
• bitsensing, an array of imaging radar technology solutions for autonomous driving and smart cities
• SELECTSTAR, an AI-based data collection and labelling platform
• RGT Inc., a multifunctional modular serving robot
• MoreDream Inc., an input system to improve accessibility and productivity for the visually impaired
• Yellowknife, a vehicle display customization platform
• MONIT, a smart diaper care solution for elderly patients

Furthermore, nine startups that have been spun off from C-Lab Inside also plan to set up their own exhibition booths at CES 2022. The spun-off startups that will exhibit include EVAR, Prinker Korea Inc., lululab and Linkface.

C-Lab Startups Recognized as Honorees and Best of Innovation at CES 2022

In November of 2021, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced CES 2022 Innovation Awards across 27 product categories, including those recognized as Best of Innovation. Projects from the C-Lab startups received one Best of Innovation award and 21 Innovation Awards Honoree nods for their standout technologies.

Notably, Petnow, which developed an AI-based biometric recognition solution for pets, was named a CES 2022 Best of Innovation award winner in the Software & Mobile Apps category. The Petnow app uses a camera to automatically detect, photograph and register a dog’s nose print, making it easier to find lost dogs.

C-Lab’s other award-winning products and services include: Digisonic, EVAR, lululab, Verses, bitsensing, Linkface, LUPLE, BLUEFEEL, Prinker Korea Inc, etc. The CES 2022 Innovation Award-winning products will be displayed separately at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas.

“With the support of the C-Lab program, these startups have proven their technological prowess on the global stage, as evidenced by the most Innovation Awards ever at CES,” said Hark Kyu Park, President and Chief Financial Officer at Samsung Electronics. “We hope the startups that had difficulty expanding their businesses due to the pandemic will be able to target the global market more actively, starting with CES 2022.”

Samsung Plans To Have Nurtured 500 Startups by Next Year

Started in December 2012, C-Lab Inside nurtures employees’ innovative ideas while instilling a corporate culture in which creativity is at the fore. The program supports the development of ideas from all areas of the business. Since 2015, Samsung has been supporting successful C-Lab projects that demonstrate great market potential, and facilitating their launch as startups under the C-Lab spin-off policy. Leveraging the success of the C-Lab Inside initiative, C-Lab Outside has been expanding Samsung’s support for new ventures to startups and innovations outside of the Samsung network since 2018.

Samsung Electronics had previously announced that it would accelerate 300 Korean startups through C-Lab Outside and 200 projects through C-Lab Inside over a five-year period. The company has nurtured a total of 406 startups (244 from C-Lab Outside and 162 from C-Lab Inside) so far, and plans to reach 500 by next year.

Samsung Electronics will demonstrate its C-Lab products and services from January 5th through the 8th at the C-Lab exhibition booth on the first floor of Hall G at Venetian Expo (formerly Sands Expo), Eureka Park. Visitors who are unable to visit the site in person will be able to watch product videos online from today until January 30th on the C-Lab website (https://www.claboutside.com/ces2022), and will also be offered chances to communicate with the startups.

[C-Lab Spin-Offs Participating in CES 2022]

The eight new C-Lab projects include: an in-video virtual ad service ‘Tisplay’, an ASMR sound recording solution ‘aiMo’, an instant video making service ‘MEDEO’, an AI news  analysis service ‘PRISMIT’, a custom perfume making service ‘Perfume Blender’, an auto-adjusting monitor ‘Girin Monitor Stand’, an AI desk light ‘alight’, and a hearing assistant  solution ‘SnailSound’.

At CES 2019, C-Lab will introduce the biggest number of projects it has ever unveiled in a single show since its CES debut in 2016. This will help to refine the projects and prepare the prototypes that will eventually become finished products to take to market.

“We will present promising C-Lab projects leveraging AI technologies in the field of video content creation, perfume making and more. These are deeply related to our daily lives and we hope to catch the eyes of attendees,” said Inkuk Hahn, Vice President and Head of the Creativity & Innovation Center at Samsung Electronics.

In addition to these projects, eight start-ups which have been spun off from Samsung C-Lab – MOPIC, LINKFLOW, lululab, WELT, Cooljamm company, MONIT, BLUEFEEL and analogue plus –will participate at CES 2019 to showcase their newly released commercial products and explore global business opportunities.

Three of these C-Lab spin-offs have been recognized as CES 2019 Innovation Awards winners. One notable example is the wearable camera FITT360 by LINKFLOW, which was given an award in the Digital Imaging category for two consecutive years. MOPIC and lululab also received awards in the Portable Media Players and Accessories, and Biotech categories. Since 2016, C-Lab spin-off companies have been named winners six times and have proven their marketability and technology.

Created in December 2012, C-Lab is an in-house idea incubation program that encourages a creative corporate culture and nurtures innovative ideas from Samsung employees. The program supports the development of ideas from all areas of the business. Introduced in 2015, the C-Lab spin-off policy helps Samsung employees who have successfully completed C-Lab projects to launch their own start-ups. Samsung supports the spin-off companies through seed money investment and business consulting to accelerate their growth, while guaranteeing their independent management.

For more information, please visit the booth #52102~#52118 in Sands, Hall G (Eureka Park Marketplace) on January 8 – 11, 2019.

Appendix 1. C-Lab Projects

1. Tisplay

‘Tisplay’ is an in-video virtual ad service for creators to use while live streaming. Tisplay recognizes the surface of the creator’s clothing and places the ads as if they were actually printed on the clothing through computer vision and graphics technology. Creators are able to place not only ads but also various images related to the video content in a way to communicate with viewers in real-time. Furthermore, viewers can enjoy videos without pausing due to mid-video pop-up ads which often feel like spam.

2. aiMo

‘aiMo’ is an ASMR sound recording solution using a smartphone and cover case that simulates the human ear. When recording ASMR content with this solution, creators not only obtain spatially more enhanced sounds in terms of sound directivity, they also produce vivid, realistic ASMR sounds with AI sound rendering software without professional recording devices. Anyone can easily create high-quality ASMR sound content – even when outdoors.

3. MEDEO

‘MEDEO’ provides an instant video making service which allows users to shoot and edit simultaneously.
Analyzing the scene and context with AI technology, MEDEO automatically integrates visual effects and background music and blends videos with the recorded videos during live streaming. In addition to that, it provides fully automated 1-click video rendering at an expert level that extracts only the core scenes of the saved video.

4. PRISMIT

‘PRISMIT’ is an AI news analysis service which creates issue-driven timelines in order to help readers understand the issue at a glance. When the user searches an issue or event, PRISMIT automatically curates the top five articles that are most representative among of the numerous articles available using issue clustering technology. This helps readers understand the context and history of the issue while many services simply offer the most read or most recent articles.

5. Perfume Blender

‘Perfume Blender’ is a custom perfume making service that enables users to make a customized fragrance with a compatible device and share the recipe through the app. When the user takes a photo of their favorite perfumes with the app, it analyzes the common ingredients and recommends fragrance recipes that the user might like. The user can directly make the perfume with those recipes or create a perfume by adjusting the ratio of the recipes through the device which has eight ingredients. Users are able to purchase additional scents.

6. Girin Monitor Stand

‘Girin Monitor Stand’ is an auto-adjusting monitor stand to ensure users have proper posture while on their computers at work. The sensor embedded stand keeps tracking the user’s posture, especially neck and head, in real-time. When the user has a bad posture, it subtly moves the monitor which naturally trains users to assume better posture without noticing the change in monitor position. Users can correct their posture by repeating this pattern to avoid postural strain in the neck, back, and shoulders.

7. alight

‘alight’ is an AI desk light which provides an optimal environment to increase concentration and provides lighting which is beneficial for the health of users. It detects user actions through the embedded camera and automatically changes the light according to the situation such as study, relax and focus. It comes with a controller which alerts the user to focus on study when the user is using a smartphone or sleeping. It also provides study history and time lapse videos of studying through the app.

8. SnailSound

SnailSound is a hearing assistant solution for people who have trouble hearing sounds. It consists of an app and an earpiece. The app analyzes user-preferred sound from feedbacks by simple hearing tests, then calibrates the sound to be heard clearer. With a smart nonlinear amplification and AI-based adaptive noise suppression algorithms, SnailSound amplifies inaudible sound and suppresses background noise at the same time to give a better hearing experience to the hearing impaired without expensive hearing aids.

Appendix 2. C-Lab Spin-off
1. MOPIC (www.mopic3d.com)

: Glasses-free 3D solution for any display devices

2. LINKFLOW (www.linkflow.co.kr)

: Neckband-form wearable 360 camera

3. lululab (www.lulu-lab.com)

: Artificial intelligence (AI) skincare assistant

4. WELT (www.weltcorp.com)

: Smart healthcare belt

5. Cooljamm Company (www.soundsup.io)

: Automated musice producer

6. MONIT (www.goodmonit.com)

: Smart baby monitor

7. analogue plus (www.analogue-plus.com)

: Smart communication device for helmet users

8. BLUEFEEL (www.bluefeelcorp.com)

: Portable air purifier and mini head fan