Proceeding with the second project to develop an eyeglass type that can be worn outdoors.

"95% of the visually impaired prefer watching TV." "86% of the visually impaired have residual vision that distinguishes between light and darkness." This is the background behind the launch of Relúmino, an app for the visually impaired, by Jo Jeong-hoon, a leader (CL) at Samsung Electronics C-Lab.

Relumino sought to overcome the limitations of existing visual aids, which are expensive in the 10 million won range and difficult to apply due to varying effects for each user, by using Gear VR, which costs around 100,000 won.

For those suffering from cataracts and corneal opacity, a clear field of view is provided through outline enhancement, color brightness/contrast adjustment, color inversion, and screen color filter functions, while for those with 'blind spots' where part of the field of view is lost and 'tunnel vision' where the field of view is reduced, an image repositioning function is provided. Clinical trial results showed that a person with a maximum corrected visual acuity of 0.1 was corrected to a maximum of 0.8.
Relumino has launched on the Oculus Apps, and users can download and use it on Galaxy S7 or higher.

Mr. Kim Chan-woong, a teacher at Hanbit School for the Blind who participated in the clinical trial, said, “People with low vision have various conditions, but Illumino was good because it could be used in a personalized way. It also helped with reading books and improving walking environments.” However, he expressed regret that it was difficult to wear the VR device in spaces other than school and home.

C-Lab projects have been conducted for one year each to provide opportunities to a diverse range of employees, but Relumino is the first C-Lab project to proceed with a second phase. The plan is to develop an eyeglasses-type vision correction device that can be used outdoors, rather than with VR devices.
Samsung Electronics’ in-house venture incubation program, C-Lab, launched in 2012 and carried out 180 projects with the participation of 750 employees. Of these, 63 cases were transferred to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, 8 were simply completed or dropped midway, and 25 were spin-offs. Samsung Electronics holds the license for the spin-off company, while the startup acquires the usage rights for a fee. However, the startup retains the newly acquired technology.

Lee Jae-il, Senior Vice President of the C-Lab Creative Development Center, stated, “C-Lab challenges a 90% failure rate. We aim to develop groundbreaking projects so that out of 10 people who attempt them, 9 will inevitably give up.” He added, “To date, Samsung Electronics has invested and supported C-Lab with 25 billion won. Spin-off companies serve as allies for Samsung Electronics, and C-Lab’s ultimate goal is ‘spin-ins,’ which involve buying back companies at high costs.”

Spin-off companies include 'Aimt,' which designs and produces vacuum insulation panels for industrial construction and has attracted 4 billion won in overseas investment; 'Cool Jam Company,' which developed an app that composes music by humming and was recognized for its competitiveness by winning at 'MIDEMLAB 2017,' one of the world's top three music fairs; and 'MANGOSLAB,' which developed a small adhesive memo printer and won the Best Innovation Award at CES in January of this year.