Samsung shows C-Lab projects at SXSW

At the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Samsung showed three experimental projects from its ‘C-Lab’. It concerns an app that converts hummed melodies into musical notation, a social media platform and ‘feel’ for VR movement.

All three projects are still in an experimental phase. The Entrim 4D headset is a virtual reality motion headset. The headset uses galvanic verstibular simulation to ensure that the user of the virtual reality headset feels movement. GVS is a system that stimulates a nerve in the ear via electrical pulses called the frontal nerve or vestibular nerve. Stimulation of the nerve makes the body seem to move. The technique is also used in people as a form of therapy, such as in people who have had a stroke.

Users of the headset with glasses get the feeling that they are part of the action on the screen, like driving a small car. By connecting the goggles with Drone FPV, the data from the motion sensors in the drone can be used, giving the feeling of flying.

The combination of techniques has been tested on more than 1500 people and more than 30 movement patterns have already been developed. One of the main reasons behind the addition to virtual reality glasses is to avoid one of the major annoyances of VR: motion sickness. Samsung hopes to greatly reduce this with this technology.

Trim 4D

The Hum On! app should help turn a hummed tune into actual sheet music. After the ‘humming’, the app will play the tune back. This can be done in different styles, for example rock, R&B or classical. Of course the melody can be shared. The app uses machine learning to better understand the user and turns the hum into a melody.

Another social media-focused app is called Waffle. Waffle wants people to share their creative moments together to create a gesamtkunstwerk consisting of different expressions, such as photos, drawings and quotes.