Samsung Developer Conference: IoT Innovation On Display
The Internet of Things hasn't quite caught on with consumers. But developers are working on changing that by rolling out innovative projects. Here's a look at some on display at the recent Samsung Developer Conference.
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt69509c9116440be8/blt446b7a1776e6377b/64cb3d3f779464595e335cfd/samsung1.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Sooner or later, everyone's moving to the cloud. It's hard to make money with software, which quickly becomes commoditized, particularly in the consumer market. And it's also difficult to make money in hardware, because next year's model has to be sufficiently better to create repeat customers and to grow the market.
But the cloud promises recurring revenue, month after month, year after year. Subscriptions are the gift that keeps giving. With Apple, which has been capturing almost all of the smartphone industry's profits, now confronting its first revenue decline in 13 years, the cloud looks more and more like a lifeboat for companies struggling to keep afloat in the saturated smartphone and tablet market.
So it's not particularly surprising that Samsung sees the cloud as the heart of its Internet of Things (IoT) business. On Wednesday, at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco, Calif., Samsung announced the launch of ARTIK Cloud, a backend service to connect the estimated 21 billion networked devices expected by 2020.
Some of those devices will be based on ARTIK, Samsung's IoT platform. When it debuted last year, it consisted of IoT hardware modules of various sizes. Now it includes a cloud-based backend.
ARTIK modules don't have to communicate with ARTIK Cloud, but Samsung has thrown in enough bells and whistles to make its offering appealing. For example, its built-in Rules Engine allows developers to set up conditional responses to data, in a manner similar to IFTTT. Such rules are all but essential for preventing smart home devices from doing dumb things.
The ARTIK Cloud pricing structure is well-designed -- free for hobbyists who want to experiment, with fees rising as usage increases. And there will need to be a lot of experimentation because it's not at all clear just what these connected devices will be doing.
[Find out 10 IoT Development Best Practices for Success.]
Among companies, the use-cases are obvious. Just about any business process can benefit from data about goods and services, the actions of personnel, inventory levels, facility efficiency, and the state of relevant equipment. Networked sensors allow all sorts of measurements that can be used to enhance productivity and profitability. But these tend to be industry-specific businesses.
In the mass market, demand for IoT devices hasn't been enough to offset declining interest in smartphones and tablets.
The 2016 Accenture Digital Consumer Survey, released in January and based on polling of 28,000 consumers in 28 countries, found "growth in demand for IoT devices is much slower than initially hoped for -- there has been virtually no increase in purchase intent over last year."
The survey attributes consumer disinterest in IoT to high prices, security concerns, and usage difficulties.
There's also the issue of utility. It may be novel, for example, to replace traditional light bulbs with networked LEDs that can be programmed to change color, respond to apps, and turn on and off in response to the presence of people in the room. But why bother? A simple light switch on the wall just works. For most people, it couldn't be easier.
Simplicity is key, and Samsung is on the right path by pushing for interoperability among IoT devices through SmartThings, and by building IoT capabilities into its TVs. IoT needs to be both easy and impossible to ignore. It may be a few more years before technology companies figure out what should be networked and what should not.
In the meantime, here's a glimpse of the kinds of projects developers are working on, which were on display this week at the Samsung Developer Conference. Take a look and let us know what you think. Which ones get you excited about the future of IoT?
Like Facebook, Samsung is betting big on VR. And to make VR appealing, the company needs people to create VR content. The company's Project Beyond 360-degree camera was announced at its 2014 Developer Conference. It has served as a prototype for a consumer version, the Gear 360 camera, which is about to ship.
Samsung Electronics' C-Lab innovation program showed several experimental projects at SDC 2016. This one is called AMe, a wearable life-logging camera designed to capture 360-degree videos. So, after you live your life, you can watch it again in real-time.
This is another C-Labs project called Ahead. The triangular device allows people wearing helmets to hear audio through conduction. It vibrates and turns the helmet into a speaker. No headphones or earbuds are necessary. It also functions as a walkie-talkie. If you push the device, you can communicate with other Ahead devices nearby.
You can think of Otto as Samsung's version of Amazon Echo. It has a microphone and a speaker, and it can answer some questions. Though not actually available as a commercial product -- it's an ARTIK demo -- Otto has some features that could help it compete with Echo, such as an HD camera capable of facial recognition and security monitoring. It also has a display screen that can convey information visually.
Samsung's ARTIK IoT modules come in various sizes. This is the ARTIK 10, designed to compete with the Raspberry Pi 3. It can be one of the "things" in the Internet of Things. All that's required is some sense of what it should be.
Samsung's open IoT platform SmartThings supports a variety of devices from various vendors. Home security remains the most useful IoT product category. IoT devices can also control lighting and home electronics like video and audio systems. But not everyone cares about being able to control networked appliances. Sometimes, you just want to push an actual button.
It's kind of cool to be able to control your LIFX light bulb over WiFi from your smartphone. The guy at the booth was enthusiastic about the impact that light has on room ambience and psychology. To some people, programmable lights may be wonderful. But all I could think about was that I used to have a blue light bulb in my room at college and I haven't missed it since then.
The Samsung Developer Conference featured a lot of unfinished products and prototypes. This wasn't one of them. The recently released Samsung Galaxy S7 is a terrific phone. It's good enough to tempt me away from my iPhone 6, though I'll probably wait to see how the iPhone 7 compares later this year.
The only thing more fun than experiencing a virtual roller coaster ride is watching a bunch of business guys with VR goggles flailing their hands in the air. It's ridiculous and even a bit endearing. Maybe someday Samsung will figure out how to make VR less of a spectacle for those not taking part in the fantasy.
The only thing more fun than experiencing a virtual roller coaster ride is watching a bunch of business guys with VR goggles flailing their hands in the air. It's ridiculous and even a bit endearing. Maybe someday Samsung will figure out how to make VR less of a spectacle for those not taking part in the fantasy.
-
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like