Samsung reveals 3D virtual reality camera, new plans for health tracking

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Samsung reveals 3D virtual reality camera, new plans for health tracking

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Samsung president Dr. Won-Pyo Hong during the keynote presentation at the company’s developer conference in San Francisco, Wednesday, November 12, 2014.
Image: Mashable, Karissa Bell

Samsung just revealed a host of new products and tools for developers, including new details about its futuristic health tracker and a 3D camera for its virtual reality headset.

The announcements came during Wednesday’s keynote presentation at the company’s second developer conference in San Francisco.

“VR is about much more than games and video,” Nick DiCarlo, Samsung’s vice president of immersive products and virtual reality, said.

The company previewed a new experimental virtual reality project, called “Project Beyond,” a 3D camera for the Gear VR headset. Samsung says the camera can capture and live stream a gigapixel a second.

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Samsung’s Project Beyond, a 3D camera for the Gear VR headset.

Image: Mashable, Karissa Bell

Developers can now pre-register to get a Gear VR that will be available in early December and a software development kit for the headset is available now.

Samsung president Dr. Won-Pyo Hong also revealed more information about the company’s plans in the healthcare space, saying it represented a “great opportunity” for the company.

“We believe healthcare monitoring technology will encourage preventive healthcare,” Hong said, highlighting the company’s previously announced health-focused Simband wristband.

That health-tracking wristband, which is powered by the open source platform SAMI (Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interactions), still doesn’t have a release date but developers will soon have the opportunity to get their hands on it. The APIs and software development kits promised to developers earlier this year are now available.

On the mobile side, the company also showed off a new Advanced S Pen stylus and software development kit as a well as a “New Look” SDK for the company’s Galaxy Note Edge smartphone. The New Look SDK will allow developers to take advantage of the Note Edge’s curved screen in their apps.

Samsung president says the company sees “enormous opportunity” in Internet of Things #SDC2014 pic.twitter.com/BeErYjFeWj

— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) November 12, 2014

Samsung also teased plans for Flow, a Continuity feature that will bring Samsung’s many devices, including smartphones, smartwatches, and televisions, together. With Flow, your phone can be charging in another room and you will be able to see incoming phone call notifications on your television, for example.

The company also revealed more about its plans for the SmartThings, the Internet of Things startup it acquired earlier this year. All of Samsung’s connected appliances, including televisions, refrigerators and ovens, will now be able to powered by the SmartThings platform. Samsung also announced a Smart Home SDK that will allow developers to build apps for Samsung appliances that can be controlled from Samsung smartphones.

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