World’s biggest consumer electronics show, ‘CES 2018’, has ended on January 11. This feast of the latest information technology and consumer electronics took place in Las Vegas for four days.
Global brands of electronics, communication, and automobiles attracted the visitors’ attention with their innovative technology and put forward their growth engine for future development. Companies displayed their new technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things for smart home, and cutting-edge automated driving system.
For CES 2018, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has announced that ‘Smart Cities’ will be a new area of focus. A bevy of related services was unveiled this year and ‘Connectivity’ became a huge issue. There were consumer electronics which upgrades its picture quality on its own with the AI technology, automobiles with automated driving capabilities, and a service with a stronger 5G connection. The efforts to fulfill the connective vision of which smartphones, TVs, consumer electronics, and even automobiles are connected to one another had shined in this show.
◇ Samsung introduced its vision of the future, ‘One Samsung’ and highlighted connectivity among products.
In accordance with the theme of CES 2018, ‘Smart Cities’, Samsung brought its smart solution with stronger connectivity to the show. Samsung organized its booth around the concept, ‘Samsung City’, focusing on its technology dubbed ‘One Samsung’. At its booth which was one of the biggest booths at CES 2018, Samsung showed the latest technologies including AI and IoT in an easy and fun way for the participants.
‘One Samsung’ is an AI service that provides an evolved user experience through stronger connectivity among TV, mobile devices, and different kinds of consumer electronics. With it, users can control every Samsung products at home through the ‘Smart Things’ app and do it as if they are talking to a person via voice control through the voice-powered digital assistant named “Bixby”.
At CES 2018, Samsung showed the viewers how the living room of the future would look like – a living room where the AI ecosystem and IoT are at the core. Highlighting the ‘new user experience’ that will be introduced in 2018, Samsung got rid of the compartmentalized structure of its previous exhibitions which was divided by product type and prepared an environment where visitors can experience different kinds of products at the same area through the ‘One Samsung’ service.
In addition, Samsung expressed its aspirations to lead the future TV market with innovative services and platforms across boundaries by establishing its AI platform, One Samsung. Samsung also announced its plans to expand the connection to automobiles and different industries.
Samsung unveiled its ‘8K AI QLED TV’ and ‘Micro LED TV’ at this year’s CES. “Samsung, which is holding its title of Number One TV Company in the market for 12 years, will adopt a ‘two-track strategy’ by putting out two strong line-ups, the QLED and Micro LED”, said Jonghee Han, Head of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, at the press conference that took place after the preview event for newly launching TV products. “You will be able to see the future of TV which Samsung will take the lead at CES 2018”, said Han, with great confidence toward Samsung’s new products.
◇ Samsung puts forward the self-emitting Micro LED TV, ‘The Wall’, to lead the future display market.
The term ‘micro’ means the micro-sized pixel that is smaller than 1mm. With the capability to use micro-sized LED chips for the pixels comprising a display, Samsung can create displays in many different forms and shapes. This was not possible with the conventional LEDs. Also with outstanding picture quality that it can deliver, the Micro LED display attracted great attention in the industry, receiving comments that it will become the dream display which will overcome the limits of the previous displays.
The processing of the micro-LED technology is essentially similar to that of semiconductors. Like in the semiconductor process, LED chips produced in a small size are attached to the substrate of the micro-LED display. This allows a simpler structure for the display, and there is no limitation on the size when using this method. It is probably an appropriate technology for targeting the extra-large screen TV market which is difficult for the OLED TV to compete in because the industry yet has limited technology to produce larger OLED screens.
Samsung caught the viewers’ attention with its world’s first modular micro-LED TV. ‘The Wall’ is the name of this massive 146-inch TV which features the micro-LED technology. Samsung demonstrated how the shape of the TV can be changed to the user’s taste by combining the micro-LED display in different ways.
The Micro LED TV that Samsung unveiled this day also delivers outstanding picture quality. It is a self-emitting display which each of its pixels emits light organically, and it does not need color filters. The color filters in a form of a film which is required for conventional TVs lowers the brightness of the TV and gives difficulty in enhancing the color accuracy. The Micro LED TV has a high level of color representation and outstanding brightness because it uses a self-emitting display and it does not have color filters.
Also, because the Micro LED TV is comprised of micro-sized LED chips, it can express a perfect black color and deliver a wide viewing angle. When the Micro LED TV comes into the commercial market, it will be the only TV without color filters that does not compromise brightness, black level, viewing angle, or color expression. It will be the TV that expresses the most excellent picture quality in the market.
Another advantage of the micro-LED is its exceptional durability. In general, self-emitting displays suffer from a problem that causes uneven aging of pixels because each pixel is controlled separately. The OLED TV which uses organic materials are prone to exposure to humidity and oxygen, so it is easily affected by screen burn-in, a permanent discoloration of areas on the display.
The remarkably durable Micro LED TV can be used for many purposes. Not only can it be used in your living room, but it can also be used outdoors. In fact, Samsung demonstrated the Micro LED TV’s outstanding flexibility of usage, using just a part of the Micro LED display and also covering the whole wall with the display.
The excellence of Samsung’s Micro LED TV was proven as soon as it was revealed. It was nominated among the CES Innovation Honoree chosen by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and it was awarded the Best of Innovation Award. This makes it the seventh consecutive year for Samsung to receive the Best of Innovation Award.
Samsung has been putting a lot of efforts to commercialize the micro-LED technology in the display market, foreseeing the growth potential of the technology. The key to the micro-LED technology is developing a way to miniaturize LEDs in a micro-sized form. Back in 2017, Samsung introduced the ‘Cinema LED’ with larger pixels for the B2B market and has succeeded in selling it overseas for the first time in October 2017, in just three months since its release.
◇ Samsung unveiled the ‘8K AI QLED TV’ that can upscale contents to 8K quality images with the AI technology.
Another product of Samsung that caught the eyes of the visitors at this year’s CES was the 85-inch ‘8K AI QLED TV’ which utilizes AI for picture quality.
The 8K AI QLED TV is the first TV in the industry to apply the deep learning artificial intelligence technology. With the 8K AI QLED TV that can upscale low-resolution content to 8K picture quality, viewers will be able to watch any content in a vivid 8K resolution, whether the content’s original picture quality is SD, HD, FHD, or UHD.
The AI feature of the 8K AI QLED TV optimizes not just the picture quality of the content, but also the sound quality of the content in accordance with the image. For example, in sports games, the background sound of the cheering audiences will be amplified for boosting the excitement of the match, and for scenes with music the bass sound will stand out for a richer sound effect.
8K AI QLED TV is more easy to use and can be quickly and easily connected to peripheral devices. Users can conveniently sync different kinds of content including TV programs and photos with other devices like smartphones.
Samsung has proven its leadership in the TV market by bringing out two flagship televisions to CES 2018. The 8K QLED TV is armed with the quantum dot technology and AI, and The Wall uses a display applied with micro-LED technology that is receiving great attention as the display of the next generation. All things taken together, it looks like Samsung will not only lead the future TV market but the display market as well.
jmlee@etnews.com