Samsung’s Creative Lab is one of the more entertaining additions to CES in the last several years. Deemed C-Lab for short, the department is a sort of in-house accelerator, where Samsung employees can build and spin-off startups, all while leveraging the electronics giants’ seemingly bottomless resources.
The results are always a bit of a mixed bag, but often present an entertaining alternative to the latest phone/tv/washing machine iterations from its parent company. This time out, the company’s showing off three new offerings, and, as with past years, a couple of them are focused on solving issues of accessibility.
Relumino is probably the most compelling of the bunch. The system is built on an app of the same name introduced by the spin-off at Mobile World Congress last year, aimed at helping improve imagery for people with visual impairments. This time out, the system adds hardware to the equation.
The “smart glasses” are actually Samsung’s Gear VR in the demo video — and, indeed, the system uses a similar combination of smartphone and headset to display sharper images. As with that system, the phone is doing all of the heavy lifting here, housing the electronics, capturing images and sending them to the lenses.
GoBreath, meanwhile, is aimed at people suffering from lung damage. The system is comprised of a portable device and a mobile app with exercises designed to teach various breathing methods. The app can track progress over time and share that information with a doctor.
S-Ray (Sound-Ray) is the most consumer-focused of the bunch. It essentially shrinks the technology found in larger directional speakers to a more portable size. Like those systems, the S-Ray offers a hyper-focused listening experience beamed in one direction at the listener. The speaker eliminates the need for headphones, without forcing everyone around you to listen to your music.
We’ll be getting a closer look at the project next week at CES.