In the company's second annual developer conference, Samsung detailed its latest devices and proposals as part of its efforts to increase collaborations with startups and increase its presence in Silicon Valley.
The conference, which is being held in San Francisco's Moscone Center where Google and Apple also hold their annual confabs, looks to increase Samsung's advancements in software and related services, as the South Korean giant is mostly only known for its hardware technology.
Over 200 speakers are lined over the three days of the conference, which will be focused on the topics of wearables, digital health, virtual reality and smart homes.
At the keynote speech for the conference, Samsung's vice president of digital health, Ram Fish, revealed the second generation reference design for the Simband wearable.
The first version of the Simband was unveiled by the company's Strategy and Innovation Center in May. Then, the design already included several sensors that measured advanced health data, along with a software platform that operates through the cloud named SAMI, or Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions, which collects the data from the sensors for analysis.
The second version of the Simband now looks more like the Gear S smartwatch of Samsung, with more embedded sensors. Simband can be accessed by developers to develop new applications and sensors, especially with the new Samsung Digital Health SDK that Samsung unveiled.
According to Fish, digital health is one of this generation's most meaningful and largest opportunities that companies and developers can collaborate on.
Samsung also showcased its "Project Beyond," which are new 360-degree cameras that are capable of shooting immersive video to be used by the company's Gear virtual reality headset.
According to Samsung Research America VP of research Pranav Mistry, the cameras will be placed across the world, allowing Gear VR users to transport themselves to places and events in other regions and countries.
The Gear VR headset will be released early in December.
Samsung also unveiled the company's new appliance controls that it acquired through the SmartThings smart home platform. Using a SmartThings hub that is plugged into a home's router, users will be able to monitor their Samsung smart appliances through the SmartThings app on their smartphones.
Samsung even constructed a smart home within the Moscone Center to be able to feature the capabilities of the platform.
Alex Hawkinson, the CEO of SmartThings, said that all future Internet-capable Samsung appliances will be connected to SmartThings.
It is becoming increasingly important for Samsung to collaborate with startups and developers for the development of customized software for its devices. To maintain its position at the top of the electronics industry, Samsung needs to go beyond the capabilities of the Android operating system and create its own ecosystem that is capable of connecting all Samsung devices and appliances.
