Next-gen Growth Engine
Samsung Electronics is accelerating the development of virtual reality (VR) contents amid fostering VR as its next-generation growth engine. As the company is proving that VR can be used to create bond between family members and experience arts and culture, it is seeking to expand the demand of VR.
According to industry sources on May 3, Samsung Electronics is currently testing a live VR storytelling app called Bedtime VR Stories in the U.K. The new app is designed to have a parent and child read together through the Gear VR when they can't be physically together. They each wear the Gear VR headsets and can watch the same videos together and talk to each other in real time. So, the child can feel like he is always being around his parents even they are on a business trip. Currently, Samsung has completed the development of Bedtime VR Stories with a single tale, titled "The Most Wonderful Place to Be." A parent and child can sit on a magical bed during the five-minute experience and visit three places — the Arctic, the prehistoric world and the outer space.
"At Samsung, we're committed to driving innovation to create technology that will make a difference to the way people live their lives," said Conor Pierce, president of the IT and mobile division at Samsung Electronics U.K. & Ireland. "We're hoping that parents and children can have a strong bond through the new app even when they are apart. With Bedtime VR Stories, we’re also expecting that this prototype will show an important new exciting genre of virtual experience and something that will define the use of VR over the coming years.”
In addition, Samsung Electronics is providing various experiences through the VR headset. In February last year, one Australian father didn't have to miss the birth of his child with the Gear VR, while he was 4,000 kilometers away. Jason Larke, who was a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) electrical contractor, was sent to Queensland, which takes 45 hours by driving from the hospital in where his wife was to give birth. However, he was able to watch the birth of his third son as it happened in a delivery room through installed cameras using the Gear VR in Queensland.
Samsung Electronics is also reinforcing VR contents related to arts and culture to expand demand. The company is now running a gallery, which allows visitors to enjoy culture and arts using the Galaxy S7 and Gear VR, at the Seoul Arts Center. At the experience center, visitors can have virtual experiences as if they are at an orchestra concert and calligraphies museum through the Gear VR.
Samsung Electronics produced such contents through the Gear VR based on the latest research from GE in the U.K. in June last year. With the Gear VR, visitors can have virtual experiences of diving into the first ancient ocean on Earth, and seeing various first sea creatures on Earth, including Opabinia, an extinct stem-arthropod genus found in Cambrian fossil deposits.