Samsung Goes All Out With Simband, Gear VR, Flow And Project Beyond

Samsung's president Won-Pyo Hong expressed the company's openness in partnering with start-ups and aiming to be an integral part of Silicon Valley. The Korean-based company has performed its expertise on hardware innovation but has struggled in the software and services category.

The developers conference headed by Samsung last Wednesday at the Moscone Center in San Francisco focused on digital health, smart home, virtual reality and wearables. Samsung also announced in the event exciting updates on the Simband wearable and the Gear VR Innovator Edition. The Project Beyond Camera also made its debut in the said event, as well as the announcement of Samsung's Flow software platform, CNET reports.

First on the list is the update on the Simband health tracker, which gets a redesign and is still packed with numerous improved sensors that measure user's biometric data, which includes blood flow, EKG levels and skin temperature. The original version of this band was released last May but the second generation was just recently unveiled in the event.

The Gear VR Innovator Edition, Samsung's virtual reality headset will launch in the U.S. in December. The device will come in two versions, the classic for $199 and the one with Bluetooth controller for $249. The headset syncs with the Galaxy Note 4 with Oculus technology, which equips the device with gyro and accelerometer-based motion controls, proximity sensors and touchpad controls. Details on the Australian and U.K. release were not yet disclosed.

Samsung also gave a preview of new software called Flow, which allows users to continue or move tasks by jumping from one device to another. Flow also allows notifications about one device to pop up on another device. For example, missed calls on the user's phone or battery-low warning will appear on the screen of the user's Samsung TV. This software counters that of Apple which is dubbed as Handoff.

Finally, Samsung's Project Beyond Camera was also part of the big announcement. It is the world's first ever 3D omniview camera which delivers high resolution and full environment reconstructions. Its system uses patent-pending stereoscopic interleaved capture and 3D-aware stitching technology which see things just like the human eye but in an extremely compact form factor. According to Designboom, the device captures and streams videos to the Gear VR which brings the VR wearer to other places and events around the globe.