The five-year MoU was signed by Kyungyun Roo, Managing Director, SRI-N (3rd from L) and Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras (3rd from R)

Samsung R&D Institute, Noida (SRI-N) has deepened its industry-academia engagement through an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to drive collaborative research, accelerate technology development and nurture future-ready talent. The partnership will focus on pioneering advancements in AI for Indian languages, HealthTech and emerging areas such as Generative AI, reinforcing Samsung’s commitment to build a stronger innovation ecosystem aligned with the vision of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’.

The five-year MoU that was signed by Kyungyun Roo, Managing Director, SRI-N and Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, aims to provide a wide range of collaborative activities, including sponsored research projects, consultancy projects, technology licensing, trainings, facility development and sponsorship of student fellowships in future.

“At SRI-N, we are continuously working towards creating technologies that empower people and communities. Our collaboration with IIT Madras marks an important step towards co-creating solutions that are meaningful, inclusive, and future-ready. Together, we aim to enhance the Galaxy AI ecosystem with deeper integration of Indian regional languages and contribute to breaking language barriers across the country. In addition, we are engaging in co-development of emerging technology and enhancement of skill sets,” said Kyungyun Roo, Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute, Noida.

Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, echoed the excitement surrounding this collaboration. “We are proud to partner with SRI-N and this alliance will sponsor revolutionary research and technological development through effective utilization of AI technology. In the fast-changing tech landscape, the MoU will upskill beneficiaries to develop strong connection between theoretical knowledge and practical industry solutions required to mitigate risks and address uncertainty,” he said.

This strategic partnership between Samsung India and IIT Madras adds to SRI-Noida’s growing network of academic collaborations, having already established long-term strategic MoUs with premier institutes including IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay and IIT Ropar. Samsung and these institutes are charting an expansive roadmap toward a smarter, more connected world. By combining industry-scale resources with academic rigor, these partnerships are cultivating a thriving ecosystem for future breakthroughs.

SRI-Noida will sponsor research and development (R&D) projects, which may be conducted at IIT Madras, the company’s premises or through a collaborative arrangement at both locations.

The process of building language features for Galaxy AI involved much time and effort as each language presents a unique structure and culture. Samsung’s Researchers from around the world — in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Poland and Vietnam — shared the challenges and triumphs behind the development of Galaxy AI. Samsung Newsroom compiled a recap of their stories below.

Developing a Translation Model

Galaxy AI features such as Live Translate perform three core processes: automatic speech recognition (ASR), neural machine translation (NMT) and text-to-speech (TTS).

▲ Automatic speech recognition (ASR), neural machine translation (NMT) and text-to-speech (TTS) each require distinct sets of information for training

Samsung R&D Institute Vietnam (SRV) faced obstacles with automatic speech recognition (ASR) models because Vietnamese is a language with six distinct tones. Tonal languages can be difficult for AI to recognize because of the complexity tones add to linguistic nuances. SRV responded to the challenge with a model that differentiates between shorter audio frames of around 20 milliseconds.

Samsung R&D Institute Poland (SRPOL) had the mammoth hurdle of training neural machine translation (NMT) models for a continent as diverse as Europe. Leveraging its rich pool of experience in projects spanning more than 30 languages across four time zones, SRPOL was able to navigate the untranslatability of certain phrases and handle idiomatic expressions that may not have direct equivalents in other languages.

Samsung R&D Institute Jordan (SRJO) adapted Arabic — a language spoken across more than 20 countries in about 30 dialects — for Galaxy AI. Creating a text-to-speech (TTS) model was no small endeavor since diacritics and guides for pronunciation are widely understood by native Arabic speakers but absent in writing. Based on a sophisticated prediction model for missing diacritics, SRJO was able to publish a language model that understands dialects and can answer in standard Arabic.

The Importance of Data

Throughout the process of training Galaxy AI in each language, an overarching theme was the importance of open collaboration with local institutions. The quality of data used directly affects the accuracy of ASR, NMT and TTS. So Samsung worked with various partners to obtain and review data that reflected each region’s jargon, dialects and other variations.

Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B) collaborated with the Vellore Institute of Technology to secure almost a million lines of segmented and curated audio data on conversational speech, words and commands. The students got hands-on experience on a real-life project as well as mentorship from Samsung experts; the rich store of data helped SRI-B train Galaxy AI in Hindi, covering more than 20 regional dialects and their respective tonal inflections, punctuation and colloquialisms

Local linguistic insights were imperative for the Latin American Spanish model because the diversity within the language is mirrored by the diversity of its user base. For example, the word for swimming pool could be alberca (Mexico), piscina (Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela) or pileta (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay) based on which region you’re from. Samsung R&D Institute Brazil (SRBR) worked with science and technology institutes SiDi and Sidia to collect and manage massive amounts of data as well as refine and improve upon audio and text sources for Galaxy AI’s Latin American Spanish model.

Samsung R&D Institute China-Beijing (SRC-B) and Samsung R&D Institute China-Guangzhou (SRC-G) partnered with Chinese companies Baidu and Meitu to leverage their expertise from developing large language models (LLM) such as ERNIE Bot and MiracleVision, respectively. As a result, Galaxy AI supports both main modes of Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.

In addition to external cooperation, due diligence and internal resources were also essential.

Bahasa Indonesia is a language notorious for its extensive use of contextual and implicit meanings that rely on social and situational cues. Samsung R&D Institute Indonesia (SRIN) researchers went out into the field to record conversations in coffee shops and working environments to capture authentic ambient noises that could distort input. This helped the model learn to recognize the necessary information from verbal input, ultimately improving the accuracy of speech recognition.

There are many homonyms in Japanese as the number of sounds is limited in the language. So many words must be determined based on the context. Samsung R&D Institute Japan (SRJ) used Samsung Gauss, the company’s internal LLM, structure contextual sentences with words or phrases relevant to each scenario to help the AI model differentiate between homonyms.

Samsung’s Global Research Network

The professionals across various Samsung R&D Institutes made full use of Samsung’s global research network.

Before tackling Hindi, SRI-B collaborated with teams around the world to develop AI language models for British, Indian and Australian English as well as Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian. Engineers from other Samsung research centers visited Bangalore, India, to bring Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian to Galaxy AI.

▲ Staff and collaborators pose in front of Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B)

SRPOL had extensive experience developing ASR, NMT and TTS models for a multitude of languages. A key player in Galaxy AI’s language expansion, SRPOL collaborated across continents to support SRJO with Arabic dialects and SRBR with Brazilian Portuguese and Latin American Spanish.

Samsung developers at each of these locations learned to collaborate across borders and time zones. Developers from SRIN even observed the local fasting customs in India when meeting their SRI-B colleagues. Many reflected on their work with pride and gratitude — realizing the lasting implications this project has on language, culture, heritage and identity.

Ongoing Efforts as the Journey Continues

Samsung recently introduced Galaxy AI to its latest foldables and wearables. Since its release earlier this year, Galaxy AI has already been used on more than 100 million devices. “We’re expecting to reach 200 million devices by the end of 2024,” said Won-joon Choi, EVP and Head of the Mobile R&D Office, Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics at a recent panel discussion.

Amidst this mission to democratize AI, it is important to look back and celebrate the accomplishments and progress that have led to providing this safe and inclusive technology that will benefit humanity and improve lives. By building up the Galaxy AI ecosystem with even more features, languages and regional variations, Samsung is facilitating cross-cultural exchanges in unprecedented ways to realize its vision of AI for All.

Hidden inside the Vellore Institute of Technology in Chennai, India, is a lab filled with futuristic audio equipment. One will find mannequins — known in the industry as head and torso simulators — as well as binaural microphones and hearing devices. They are stored in special chambers treated with an advanced sound absorption system, making this lab the first of its kind in India. Imagine such a facility is used to develop the latest high-end high fidelity (Hi-Fi) equipment.

This is where the Vellore Institute of Technology collaborates with Samsung to produce and develop data and insights that power the latest AI models for Galaxy AI’s language capabilities. The facility was developed as part of Samsung SEED (Students Ecosystem for Engineered Data) Labs — an initiative that enables university staff, students and interns in India to work on projects requested by Samsung since 2021. This is just one of several university programs funded by Samsung in which students have the opportunity to work on projects with technical experts from the company.

“As a student, I love being able to work on multiple projects with a well-known and respected company such as Samsung,” says Yashika Ilanchezhiyan, a Samsung SEED student. “I’m given the confidence to learn new skills in a practical way and feel like I’m making a real difference in current and future products.”

“This kind of collaboration is a win-win situation,” says Giridhar Jakki, Head of Language AI at Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore (SRI-B). “Thanks to our projects with universities, we are able to access additional expertise and custom datasets. Partnering universities receive investment, financial incentives and expert mentorship from Samsung as a result.”

Lowering Language Barriers

SRI-B has collaborated with teams around the world to develop AI language models for British, Indian and Australian English as well as Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian. Recently, core engineers from other Samsung Research centers visited Bangalore, India — where the SRI-B team helped ramp up the technology to bring Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian to Galaxy AI. SRI-B was therefore ideally positioned to develop the Hindi language for Galaxy AI.

“Every language has its challenges,” says Jakki. “But when you consider the end goal of bringing people the ability to communicate in other languages, it’s worth every ounce of effort. We couldn’t wait to bring Hindi to Galaxy AI.”

Developing the Hindi AI model wasn’t simple. The team had to ensure more than 20 regional dialects, tonal inflections, punctuation and colloquialisms were covered. Additionally, it is common for Hindi speakers to mix English words in their conversations. This required the team to carry out multiple rounds of AI model training with a combination of translated and transliterated data.

“Hindi has a complex phonetic structure that includes retroflex sounds — sounds made by curling the tongue back in the mouth — which are not present in many other languages,” says Jakki. “To build the speech synthesis element of the AI solution, we carefully reviewed data with native linguists to understand all the unique sounds and created a special set of phenomes to support specific dialects of the language.”

Collaborative efforts between Samsung and academic partners were instrumental in developing the AI language model that reflected the cultural nuances of the India’s regions. The Vellore Institute of Technology helped secure almost a million lines of segmented and curated audio data on conversational speech, words and commands. Data was a crucial component for a task as critical as incorporating the fourth most spoken language in the world into Galaxy AI. Working with universities ensured Samsung was using the highest quality data.

Global Connections Deliver Big Impacts

This project perfectly encapsulates Samsung’s philosophy of open collaboration and the company’s belief that sharing expertise and perspectives ensures meaningful innovation. In the case of SRI-B, this not only includes working with academia but also sharing insights and best practices with other Samsung research centers around the world.

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieved with the help of our partners,” says Jakki. “AI innovation through collaboration is a big part of what we do. We will continue to better understand, collect and analyze language data so more people can have access to AI tools in the future.”

Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore has collaborated with Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) to set up a ‘Samsung Student Ecosystem for Engineered Data (SEED) Lab’, providing students and faculty an exciting opportunity to delve into the world of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data engineering.

At the lab, students and faculty members of VIT will get to work on joint research and development projects on emerging cutting-edge tech areas such as mobile tech, speech and text recognition and machine learning, with senior engineers at Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore (SRI-B).

Samsung has already launched two SEED labs in Karnataka earlier. Through the initiative, more than 250 students have been engaged on AI and big data-related projects.

“At Samsung, we believe in leveraging the power of the ecosystem. Our strategic partnership with VIT, Vellore not only reflects our commitment to fostering cutting-edge research but also reinforces our dedication to nurture talent and upskill our workforce. With VIT, we are forging new frontiers in research and innovation, while nurturing the next generation of digital leaders. Together, we are embarking on a journey to unlock the limitless potential of research and learning in the fast-evolving technology and business landscape. This will further Samsung’s unwavering commitment to its vision of #PoweringDigitalIndia,” said Mohan Rao Goli, Chief Technology Officer, SRI-B.

The Lab at VIT, Vellore plans to leverage the capabilities of academia in executing AI & Data-centric projects by building an end-to-end pipeline for data which includes collection, engineering (curation, labelling, etc.), carrying out data research projects & experiments, data management and archival.

Collaborative research projects will be open to third and fourth year B.Tech and M.Tech students, and Ph.D. scholars at VIT. Students will also be encouraged to publish papers jointly with SRI-B engineers.

The SEED Lab, which is a collaborative initiative between SRI-B and VIT for 5 years, is spread across 4,000 sq ft. In its initial phase, the Lab has been equipped with facilities such as a green room with lighting equipment to conduct experiments in varied lighting conditions, devices & accessories, image quality analysis tools, among others. It also has robust backend infrastructure to store, process and archive large volumes of data. Additionally, the Lab is also capable of hosting close to 75 members within, who can work inside the Lab. In the subsequent phases, the in-house capabilities of the Lab will be expanded with dedicated facilities that enables work on areas such as 3D, AR/VR, among others.

“Today, our world is becoming increasingly data-centric, and along with AI, it continues to transform the way we live, work and do business. Samsung SEED lab is a great initiative that gives students the opportunity to learn and work under SRI-B engineers on research projects that address the issues facing the world,” said Dr. G Viswanathan, Founder & Chancellor, VIT, Vellore.

All students will receive certificates for their contribution at the end of each project from SRI-B.

Samsung has been working with students across top engineering colleges in Karnataka on various R&D projects on areas such as AI, ML, Internet of Things & Connected Devices, and 5G networks, as part of the very popular students’ engagement programme named Samsung PRISM.

Every floor has a social hub at the entrance to enhance interaction, communication and open collaboration among employees

Samsung, India’s most trusted smartphones and consumer electronics brand, has announced that Samsung R&D Institute, Noida (SRI-N) and Samsung Design Delhi (SDD) have moved to a new state-of-the-art office in the city that is housed in an IGBC LEED Platinum rated campus. The new office campus is spread over 377,118 sq ft of space across 10 floors in the Candor TechSpace building on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

The design of the building is inspired by the India Gate and the SRI-N and SDD office is built to deliver breakthrough innovations and new-age solutions that make people’s lives better.   The latest workspace reinforces Samsung’s commitment to its vision of #PoweringDigitalIndia by empowering the next generation of young India with its impactful innovations.

SRI-N and SDD’s new office is built on the egalitarian linear workstations concept and every floor has a social hub at the entrance to enhance interaction, communication and open collaboration among employees.

Workstations have been designed in a way that a majority of them have access to natural sun light and amenities such as a social hub, recreation and meeting rooms. The space also includes height adjustable workstations for better ergonomics, which can also be used as standing desks. The workspace follows the hot desking concept, allowing people to choose where they want to sit. Employees at SRI-N choose their seats for a week through an in-house app. Through the app, members of different teams working on a project can choose to sit together and collaborate better.

Infused with biophilic design principles, the interior of the office built around a human-centred approach that ensures improved air quality and well-being through natural elements. As part of this principle, biophilia or indoor plants in planters are spread across the office. The work floors are also equipped with Indoor Air Quality sensors.

The lush green campus has an IGBC LEED Platinum rating and has been awarded 5 stars by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). The new office uses technology like occupancy sensors and maximizes the use of natural light for energy savings.

“We are thrilled to announce the new location for Samsung R&D Institute, Noida. The new office space is an effort to create a safe and inclusive workplace that empowers every individual to innovate and create. Keeping in line with our core values of people, excellence and co-prosperity, the new office will offer the right environment and opportunities to deliver new-age products and solutions,” said Mr. KY Roo, Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute, Noida.

“With this new space, we look forward to providing opportunities to young engineers to learn, grow and contribute to Samsung’s innovative global products,” he added.

“Samsung Design Delhi is proud to turn a new chapter in 2022 with its brand new studio space. It is a bright open space that cultivates the right environment for innovation. The synergy and seeds of the innovation are driven through strong collaboration with our R&D centres across India & beyond. We bring together the epitome of creativity for our consumers from this new space,” said Mr. KD Park, Managing Director, Samsung Design Delhi.

Samsung Design Delhi’s brand new studio space

SRI-N’s new office houses a number of labs with state-of-the-art equipment that work on testing smartphone device performance, stability and IoT capabilities.

To ensure the maximum comfort and convenience for employees, the campus is also equipped with a multi-format experiential cafeteria, training hub, crèche, gymnasium, wellness centre, daycare, banks/ATMs, cafes, restaurants, various recreational amenities as well as EV charging stations.

Taking a step ahead towards creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, the campus has been carefully designed keeping in mind the needs of the specially-abled. Every campus area including pathways, parking, lobbies, lifts, staircases and toilets uses braille and tactile indicators to create a more accessible and inclusive workplace for all.

The Cafeteria

SRI-Noida was established in 2007 with the primary focus of mobile software development and testing. It is actively involved in developing localized and advanced solutions to suit market needs for South West Asia and also develop models for Middle East Asia, North America (USA and Canada), Europe & CIS regions. The centre possesses extensive and in-depth experience in major domains of R&D like Framework, Multimedia Applications, Knox Security and Health-based Wearable development.

The R&D centre has developed global solutions that are focused on GenZ to enrich customer experience. These include features such as AltZ Life, Chat Over Video and Auto Data Switching solution.   R&D teams are also actively involved in enhancing health-oriented wearable experience of users by implementing features like auto cycling, workout detection, among others.

Like so many great inventions, Expert RAW was a group effort — driven by Samsung’s experts and Galaxy users’ valuable feedback. To learn more about the Expert RAW experience, Samsung Newsroom spoke with the experts at Samsung Research² who collaborated on the app.

Read on to see what Hamid Sheikh, Head of the Intelligent Imaging Team at Samsung Research America’s (SRA) Mobile Processor Innovation (MPI) Lab, and Girish Kulkarni, Head of the Camera Solutions Group at the Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B), had to say about this innovative camera collaboration.

Q: What does the Expert RAW app do? What are the main benefits for users?

Hamid: Expert RAW really gives users the ability to take full control of their mobile photography experience much like a professional photographer would. The app captures much more comprehensive data for each image, which can be used to both improve photos and artistically enhance them with editing software like Adobe Lightroom — the go-to app for professional photographers.

To improve the overall camera experience, we worked closely with Adobe to tightly couple Expert RAW with Lightroom. The result is that photographers have full control over their creative experience. Novice photographers can also utilize automatic set points for camera controls, and then use the Samsung-specific default values in Lightroom. In both cases, the tight integration of the two apps makes for an enjoyable experience.

Girish: Expert RAW is an epic leap forward for photography. It essentially places a professional studio in your pocket. Whether you are a pro photographer or you’re just a user who wants to capture amazing content, anyone can take full advantage of the Galaxy S22’s pro-grade camera with Expert RAW. It captures high-quality, high dynamic range pictures in the multi-frame RAW format that enables precise post-capture editing and professional results.

With Expert RAW, people can capture much more information in a single picture — from dark details to bright highlights. It also drastically reduces noise and increases sharpness and detail. If you’re looking for the ultimate creative controls, you can choose your own settings for aspects like ISO, shutter speed, white balance, EV and focus, and even choose which lenses you want to use for the subject and the scene. Finally, because both JPEG and DNG files are saved when shooting, you can hop right into the Adobe Lightroom app on your smartphone or PC and edit with ease.

Q: What was the original inspiration for Expert RAW?

Hamid: Samsung camera technologies have always relied on sophisticated computational photography algorithms to produce the best picture quality. However, the standard camera app makes many decisions about how the image will be rendered in terms of color, tone, detail and noise. The user has very limited say in these decisions.

Our inspiration came from the confluence of user experience limitations and the leaps in computational and AI capabilities of today’s mobile processors. We asked ourselves, “How can we make the photography experience more inspiring for users?” So really, our inspiration came from the expert and enthusiast photography community, which yearned for an easier mobile photography experience, without sacrificing the creative control that DSLR and post-capture editing allows. Expert RAW was born out of a desire to transform that inspiration into reality.

Girish: As we heard the input of professional photographers who were mostly utilizing DSLR cameras, they wanted to achieve a pro-grade experience with smartphones. Our consumer research also showed that after using their smartphone’s auto camera for a long time, typical users were very passionate about exploring Samsung’s pro-grade camera capabilities in-depth to become better photographers.

The more we talked to professional and amateur photographers, the more we understood their needs in terms of RAW image capturing, camera controls, the post-editing experience, creative capabilities and more. That’s when we set out to create a new pro-grade experience based around RAW capturing so that every level of photographer could merge our camera controls and their creativity to enjoy professional-looking photos.

Q: What makes Expert RAW such an important release for mobile photography in general?

Hamid: The camera experience is one of the most important experiences that a user has with his or her smartphone. Samsung has been at the cutting edge of camera quality, and the gap between consumers and professional/enthusiast photographers has always been a tempting one to bridge.

I think with the release of Expert RAW, users will find that their photography experience will take a quantum leap in terms of creative control and artistic expression. I expect more and more people will find this new experience rewarding because it lets them personalize their camera based on their tastes — exactly how they want them — and not based on what some other engineers chose for them.

Girish: As an app, this platform has simplified the RAW capturing process with precise camera and lens controls and post-editing with Adobe Lightroom. It’s for every user who is willing to go beyond — to unleash the true power of an Expert RAW camera, and explore their creative side.

Q: What role did the MPI Lab play in Expert RAW’s development?

Hamid: Any time we are creating a brand-new user experience, we have to consider and overcome many tough engineering challenges. The MPI Lab developed the main idea behind Expert RAW and its technologies, and we knew it was challenge worth pursuing.

We developed a brand-new computational photography pipeline that can produce both DNG as well as processed JPEG files. Developing a complex computational photography pipeline from scratch was not easy. We no longer had the benefit of an older, mature technology base to build upon. But our team successfully developed this new, AI-based 3DISP technology to produce raw data that looks very natural when users load it in editing apps like Adobe Lightroom.

Q: What role did SRI-B play in Expert RAW’s development? What were the team’s main areas of focus?

Girish: Expert RAW 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.

SRI-B is equipped with strong multi-domain expertise teams, so we formed a task force of talented experts. They all worked together as a single team within SRI-B and also worked with a larger team of experts based in Korea and at the MPI Lab.

The multi-domain expertise and close collaboration with all key stakeholders helped SRI-B continuously focus on improving Expert RAW’s product experience, end-to-end pipeline, etc.

Q: Could you offer more details on your collaboration with one another?

Hamid: The MPI Lab has been working with SRI-B throughout our entire history at Samsung. SRI-B contributed its amazing skillset and resources towards the development of the software technologies, as well as key AI blocks for the Expert RAW pipeline. They also owned the UI piece of the Expert RAW application and provided many innovation points on the Expert RAW experience. It’s always fun working with them.

Girish: The MPI Lab has world-class expertise in computational imaging domain, and has a proven record of developing successful IPs for Samsung flagship products. That expertise was one of the key requirements for Expert RAW’s development. The MPI Lab came up with the multi-frame pipeline building blocks implementation, which helped SRI-B integrate and enhance the same for the end-to-end architecture and pipeline.

One of the major expectations for Expert RAW was that it would enable the best image quality in different lighting conditions, which requires the tuning of the multi-frame processing pipeline. MPI’s strong expertise in this area helped us continuously improve image quality before the commercial launch. In summary, MPI’s expertise in computational imaging and SRI-B’s breadth of knowledge in multiple subdomains helped SRI-B prepare Expert RAW’s end-to-end experience for commercial launch.

SRI-B and the MPI Lab used their 12-hour time zone difference effectively to plan and collaborate on Expert RAW. SRI-B’s day was MPI’s night, and vice versa. It helped to have 24/7 development to finish this complex feature in record time. We are proud of Samsung’s culture that enables respectful collaboration among different overseas R&D centers and we always enjoy working with MPI Lab.

Q: How do the MPI Lab and SRI-B plan to build on this collaboration to develop even more innovative camera technologies?

Hamid: Our journey with the new RAW camera experience is just beginning. I am excited to think about what new improvements and enhancements we can make. One of the best parts of the Expert RAW experience is that the photographer is front and center. We’ll preserve that as we actively look into the experiences of different users and continuously implement improvements to make Expert RAW even better than before.

Girish: The MPI Lab and SRI-B have been working together for the last few years developing the world’s best night mode for Samsung flagship smartphones. This collaboration helped lead us to the success story that is Expert RAW on the Galaxy S22. We’re excited to continue that momentum for the next innovative products to come.

In the future, we would like to continuously enhance Expert RAW with a focus on creating a new ecosystem for pro photography that fully utilizes pro-grade camera capabilities.

Collaborating for Creativity 

Features like Expert RAW underline Samsung’s commitment to developing tools that empower users to unleash their creativity.

Going forward, the company will continue to strengthen collaborations that leverage the knowledge and capabilities of its world-class network of R&D centers. Doing so will help unlock technologies that change the way we live, work and create.

¹ Expert RAW must be downloaded separately from the Galaxy Store, for free, before use. Expert RAW app availability is currently limited to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and S22 series. Samsung Members notified Expert RAW will become available on Galaxy Z Fold3 in April 2022 and Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy Note20 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold2 later this year.

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

The expert interviewed for the series is Ratnakar Rao V R, who heads the Beyond 5G Team at Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore (SRI-B). Rao is soon to complete a decade at SRI-B, and the bulk of his experience has been in the research and development of wireless communication technologies like 4G and 5G. Check out the interview below to find out more about the promising technologies Rao and his team have been working on.

Q: Advanced system software plays a crucial role in activating all kinds of technologies developed to provide better user experiences. How has research into applied AI been factoring into your work within the communications field?

Traditionally, all cellular communication systems were implemented using mathematical models and were strictly rule-based. However, this is now changing in the 5G era due to a few key factors.

Firstly, since a single network has to cater to a number of diverse use cases simultaneously, such systems cannot operate to the best of their capabilities if implemented based only on traditional modeling. Secondly, advances in computation algorithms and processor architectures are making it easier to run AI and machine learning models on a wider range of devices. Thirdly, wireless networks are being virtualized and are getting split into micro-services that run in the cloud. On-Device AI capabilities are also being added to wireless terminals. From 5G onwards, networks will be closely integrated with applications, making it necessary for them to be more contextually aware of users and applications in order to deliver personalized network experiences to all.

All these factors enable and necessitate broader use of AI and machine learning in next-generation wireless networks and terminals.

Q: Can you please briefly introduce SRI-B and the kind of work that goes on there?

The Samsung R&D Institute in Bangalore (SRI-B) has established five Centers of Excellence (CoEs) with the focus areas of Communication, Camera and Multimedia, On-Device AI, IoT and Services. SRI-B has experience executing projects from the research to market stage in each of these areas, and makes impactful contributions to Samsung product lines on the backs of these CoEs every year.

At the Communication CoE, SRI-B has dedicated teams working on mobile terminals, network RAN/core development and wireless standards. Strong synergy between these teams has resulted in the establishment of end-to-end domain expertise. In addition to this, we have recently seeded advanced communication research in a bid to make impactful contributions to Beyond 5G and 6G evolution.

Q: What kind of communication-related work are you and your team engaged in now?

Firstly, our team specializes in radio, data networking protocols and embedded modem system software. We craft the 5G radio experience for different markets around the world. Our team is engaged in the product development of 5G mobile terminals for a range of world-wide markets.

Secondly, we are engaged in advanced research and development surrounding communication protocols. Some of this work makes it into Samsung products as differentiating features and solutions. The rest of our work is aimed at creating standards and implementation IP (intellectual property) pertaining to Beyond 5G and 6G systems.

Q: How do you expect the Beyond 5G era to change the way users interact with technology in their day-to-day lives?

The early launches of non-standalone 5G have unlocked a lot of hitherto unused spectrum in mid and high bands and also enabled the re-farming of the existing 4G spectrum for use with 5G. Thus, the transition to a very high-capacity communication system is underway.

This massive addition of capacity will enable more users to connect more devices to the internet and bring the benefits of connectivity to the masses who live in rural areas. For regular users, these benefits will be evident in terms of very high-resolution streaming, faster downloads and uploads and real-time interactive gaming. They will also see mixed-reality experiences in video streaming and video calls.

The subsequent enhancements to 5G in the coming years will unlock consumer infotainment and a lot of other use cases. For example, the low-power, low-bandwidth features of IoT devices will help public services, the agricultural industry and factories automate for better efficiency. Likewise, satellite-based 5G will provide ubiquitous coverage all over the globe. The highly reliable, low-latency optimizations applied to 5G networks will also enable better remote delivery of services like healthcare and education.

Q: Which of SRI-B’s achievements in the communications field are you most proud of?

We at SRI-B are proud to have played a critical role in the launch of the world’s first 3G, 4G and 5G smartphones. Recently, SRI-B has enabled standalone 5G and 5G carrier aggregation in mobile terminals for commercial use, developed 4G and 5G network software and helped establish MC-PTT (Mission Critical Push to Talk) capabilities.

SRI-B has also been an IP powerhouse for several years. Every year, a number of IPs are created by SRI-B engineers from across the various domains. We have created more than 200 implementation IPs in the area of wireless communication, and more than 100 standard essential IPs in the areas of 4G and 5G.

Q: How does collaborating with other institutes like Samsung Research America, Samsung R&D Institute UK and Samsung Research in Korea complement your work and research capabilities?

We have worked closely with Samsung Research on early technology development and realization of 5G, and are now collaborating on nascent 6G technology development. I strongly believe that a lot of potentials can be unlocked by further collaboration between SRI-B and the teams at Samsung Research America and Samsung R&D Institute UK.

SRI-B has a very large pool of communication engineers, including innovators and domain experts. It is therefore possible to build high-quality teams and execute research promptly. We are actively exploring these possibilities by interacting with R&D leaders at global research centers to enable breakthrough innovations.

Q: How are AI and machine learning being applied to Beyond 5G and 6G wireless communication technology? How do you expect these technology combinations to evolve going forward?

It is widely agreed that AI and machine learning will have a significant influence on network management and radio resource management for Beyond 5G and 6G networks. We envisage AI and machine learning applications being present in block-level AI, procedural AI and system software AI, and are actively researching along these lines.

• • Block-level AI: A specific block in the terminal or network could be added with AI/machine learning without impacting the rest of the system, resulting in performance improvements and/or computation savings. For example, a channel decoder could decide to terminate the decoder iterations early if it is able to predict whether the block decoding will eventually pass or fail.
  • Procedural AI: This is where at least two entities in the end-to-end system exchange information to enable accurate use of AI and machine learning techniques. For example, meta-data needs to be exchanged between the terminal and network for an auto encoder or decoder to work within a margin of error. Another example is mobility management for terminals.
  • System software AI: Most entities in next-gen communication systems will have to operate in several modes. The embedded system software should be able to scale up or scale down system resources very dynamically. AI-assisted embedded system software is expected to learn context-specific requirements and adapt accordingly.

Q: You are a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). What kind of activities are you involved with in this role? How does your position in the IEEE inform your other work?

In this role, I deliver invited lectures and talks on various technology topics for the student communities and teach fraternities at regional engineering colleges. The role has also enabled me to seed new study items internally, allowing us to initiate new collaborations with student communities and faculties from reputed universities.

The aim is to influence as many people as possible to improve their domain expertise and pursue advanced research in the communications field. I also represent Samsung in various talks and discussions with industry, government and academia. My interactions help me stay in touch with the latest trends in various areas adjacent to my area of expertise.

I also encourage my team members to publish their results in outstanding conferences and journals. This year and last year, we have published more than 20 papers in various outstanding forums.

Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B), the Company’s largest R&D centre outside Korea, has won the ‘Impactful GCC Driven Collaboration’ and ‘Excellence in Building Talent of the Future’ Awards at the recently held Nasscom GCC (Global Capability Center) Awards.

These awards recognize Global Capability Centers (GCCs) that are making a significant contribution to Global ER&D operations in terms of portfolio transformation, technical talent development, establishing next-gen centre of excellence and innovation contribution.

The Bengaluru R&D centre has also won two awards – ‘Unlocking Centre Value Award’ and ‘Technical Role Model Award’ – at the Zinnov Awards earlier in September.

SRI-B has undergone a transformation over the last decade. This includes developing breakthrough innovation that has been adopted in global products of Samsung, co-working with start-ups and collaborative projects with academia that have helped boost innovation.

“SRI-B has developed multiple impactful innovations over the last twenty-five years. This success can be attributed to the collaboration with cross-functional teams from within and beyond, converging to draw insights and finding solutions for our consumers. As part of our Powering Digital India vision, we will create breakthrough innovations through our many Centres of Excellence,” said Dipesh Shah, SVP and Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore.

SRI-B has collaborated with vendors for product deployment, including Samsung’s recent tie-up with Vodafone UK for Europe’s first-ever wide-scale commercial deployment of Open RAN, where SRI-B played a key role.

The organization is also deeply connected with the Indian start-up ecosystem for strategic partnerships based on market needs and internal technology requirements, with investments in Swiggy, Magicpin and Railyatri.

“Over the last decade, alongside our in-house innovation, we have built a strong culture of open innovation. Whether it is collaborative work with technology vendors, strategic partnerships with start-ups or research collaboration with universities, Samsung is playing a pivotal role in helping build India’s innovation ecosystem,” said Dr. Aloknath De, Vice President & CTO, Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore.

Earlier this year, SRI-B had also won the ER&D Organization of the Year and the Social Impact Solution of the Year Award at the first edition of the NASSCOM Engineering & Innovation Excellence Awards 2021.

In the last few years, the R&D centre has also established more than twenty research collaborations with universities/research institutes in India and overseas, working in areas of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Wireless Networks and Multimedia which are its centres of excellence.

The PRISM (Preparing and Inspiring Student Minds) program that SRI-B launched last year has seen positive results, scaling up to a cohort of over 3,000 engineering students and 300 professors, who are working on real world problems with Samsung engineers. This program has helped make students industry-ready while also improving the innovation quotient at Samsung.

SRI-B, Samsung’s largest R&D facility outside Korea, was set up in 1996. Over the years, it has grown into an advanced R&D centre for Samsung globally, with excellence in wireless communications, multimedia and image processing, artificial intelligence in vision, voice and text technologies and Internet of Things (IoT).

Over the next five years, SRI-B to explore Multi-Device Intelligence, beyond 5G, Blockchain and Data Science areas even as it continues to create strong differentiation for Samsung through innovations in camera technologies, artificial intelligence and 5G.

SRI-B, which has created a strong culture of filing patents among its engineers over the last decade, will also expand Open Innovation with startups, students and universities to help strengthen the innovation and startup ecosystem in the country.

It will drive this effort by scaling up its industry-academia program PRISM under which it has been working with engineering students and faculty on real-world research and development projects in cutting edge technology areas. So far it has worked with close to 500 students in the country and some of these students have gone on to file patents along with Samsung engineers.

SRI-B engineers have filed over 3,200 patents so far and over the last three years there has been a 4X increase in the number of patents being filed annually. In this period, there has been an increase in Gen Z and Millennial engineers at SRI-B filing patents and around 80% of the patent creators were engineers who filed patents for the first time in their careers.

“It has been an incredible journey since 1996 as SRI-B has been Samsung’s pillar of strength. As we complete yet another milestone, we will focus on breakthrough innovations with our refreshed R&D strategy that will lead to shaping of new global lifestyles inspired from India. We will grow sustainably as we will do our part to uplift the skill base of students especially in the Karnataka region through our unique CSR programs,” said Dipesh Shah, Managing Director, SRI-B.

“Our biggest strength is our people and as we move ahead we will continue to focus on building up the skills of our in-house talent in cutting edge research and development areas and also empower thousands of students enrolled in our industry-academia initiative Samsung PRISM, as part of Samsung’s vision of Powering Digital India,” he said.

Focus on Next Gen Technologies

Going forward, the R&D centre will explore Multi-Device Intelligence, beyond 5G, Blockchain and Data Science areas while on the digital infrastructure side, Virtualization and Containerization will be the key technology focus areas. SRI-B will also focus on intensifying community building programs with services like Samsung Find that enables users to help each other in tracing devices.

Since it’s set up in 1996, SRI-B has worked on many cutting edge technologies and has had many firsts – 3G networks, the world’s first 4G, 5G networks, voice over LTE – and engineers at the centre have made significant contributions to Samsung Galaxy smartphones and Samsung networks.

Local India-Specific Innovations

SRI-B has been at the centre of developing local India-specific innovations, which has created a differentiation for Samsung smartphones in the Indian market, and these innovations have been loved by consumers.

SRI-B conducts consumer research every year to understand the growing needs of consumers in India, based on which engineers develop innovations that become part of smartphone products for the country. A recent innovation that the centre developed is an On Device Search engine that helps people find their pictures and other content on the smartphones easily using natural language search.

Open Innovation & Building a Strong Patents Culture

SRI-B will scale up the Samsung PRISM program to add more colleges from across the country, to help stimulate the Indian innovation ecosystem, and build capabilities among students that meet industry needs.

These students get to work on projects in cutting edge technology areas such as Artificial Intelligence (including vision tech), Machine Learning, Internet of Things & Connected Devices and 5G networks, to solve real world problems. Each project is taken up by a team of three students and one professor, with a mentor from SRI-B who will guide and train them, and conduct regular reviews. Students are encouraged to publish papers and file patents jointly with SRI-B.

Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B) was recognized as a ‘Great Place to Innovate’ for the third straight time at the prestigious Zinnov Awards 2020. The awards recognize and celebrate the stalwarts of technology world and honour Indian R&D centres that have created an impact on a global scale.

The award has recognised SRI-B for excellence in multiple focus areas, and for establishing itself as the ‘Innovation Hub’ in emerging technologies. SRI-B’s in-house innovation culture with focus on patent creation has enabled R&D engineers at the centre to build impactful solutions around Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Vision & Camera and 5G. University collaboration and start-up engagement has enabled SRI-B to bring together open innovation and in-house innovation.

“Our innovation is deep-rooted in technology. We nurture it in our day-to-day activities where innovators, the strongest anchor of this organization, are encouraged to have a ‘Research-to-Market’ mindset. Our ‘Make for India’ efforts, coupled with excellence in AI, IoT, 5G and Multimedia, are aimed at creating solutions for Indian and global consumers,” said Dr Aloknath De, CTO, Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore.

This year, Zinnov Awards received more than 350 nominations from over 150 companies across eight different categories. A total of 28 winners were selected by 45 eminent jurors.

SRI-B has won the Zinnov Awards in the “Great Place to Innovate” category in 2015 and 2017. The winners this year were selected by a jury comprising eminent members from various India R&D centres, CTOs, industry influencers and previous award winners. SRI-B had also won the Zinnov Awards for ‘Design Thinking’ in 2015 and ‘Center of Excellence’ in 2016 and Zinnov “Open Innovators Award” last year.

SRI-B focuses on technologies around Communication Protocols, Multimedia (including Camera Solutions), Intelligence, Payment, Web Services, Memory, Network and IoT. The R&D centre’s key focus is to create global product differentiation and solutions for the Indian market by identifying unique insights and deliver value to consumers. SRI-B has expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality and networks including 5G. It has also filed over 2,900 patents in India so far.

As part of Samsung’s ‘Make for India’ initiative, SRI-B has worked on several India-specific innovations that are based on consumer insights.

Over the years, the centre has engaged with multiple universities and educational institutes such as Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IISc), International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) IIT- Kharagpur and IIT-Kanpur for research collaborations on areas such as artificial intelligence and its applications to multimedia and vision tech, IoT, sensors and networks.

It recently launched a unique industry-academia program – Samsung PRISM (Preparing and Inspiring Student Minds) – to stimulate the Indian innovation ecosystem, and build capabilities among students that meet industry needs.