Samsung is set reveal several new experimental products at CES 2016 this week, that are part of their C-Labs program.
Among the new products will be a smart belt called WELT, which is designed to track user’s waist size and activity.
Also on deck is the TipTap, which allows users to hear audio from a connected smartwatch, while touching a finger to their ear.
Lastly the company is planning to showcase ‘rink’ which will allow for control of virtual reality devices, such as Samsung’s Gear VR.
These will be the first products to make it beyond Samsung’s C-Labs into the public realm. The initiative, created in 2012, allows Samsung employees to take a year off from their day-to-day jobs in order to work on their own product ideas.
The idea, much like Google’s 20 per cent time idea is to foster creativity and individuality. If the product is successful, as The Verge reports, it can be spun off into a new company.
 Click to enlarge |
| WELT: “WELT is a smart wearable healthcare belt that looks like a normal belt, thus offering consumers a more discreet way of using smart sensor technology to monitor their health. WELT is capable of recording the user’s waist size, eating habits and the number of steps taken, as well as time spent sitting down. It then sends this data to a specially-designed app for analysis, and the production of a range of personalized healthcare and weight management plans. |
Samsung Rink
 |
| RINK: “rink is an advanced hand-motion controller for mobile VR devices which offers a more intuitive and nuanced way to interact with the virtual world. The ability to intuitively control the game or content just by using their hands provides consumers with a much deeper level of mobile VR immersion.” |
Samsung TipTalk
 |
| “TipTalk is a remarkable new UX that enables people to listen to the sound from their smart devices, such as the Samsung Gear S2, without headsets or earphones, simply by touching their finger to their ear. This enhances the clarity of calls, enabling them to be taken in public, even in noise-sensitive or loud environments, such as a concert hall or building site – without the risk of being overheard.
“Shaped like a watch strap, ‘TipTalk’ can be added to watches – analog or smart – and sync with smartphones, enabling Text-to-Speech (TTS) functionality.” |
TIP TALK: “TipTalk is a remarkable new UX that enables people to listen to the sound from their smart devices, such as the Samsung Gear S2, without headsets or earphones, simply by touching their finger to their ear. This enhances the clarity of calls, enabling them to be taken in public, even in noise-sensitive or loud environments, such as a concert hall or building site – without the risk of being overheard.
“Shaped like a watch strap, ‘TipTalk’ can be added to watches – analog or smart – and sync with smartphones, enabling Text-to-Speech (TTS) functionality.”
Naturally we’ll be checking them all out when CES kicks on Tuesday here in Las Vegas.
