A couple of days ago, Samsung (News - Alert) announced the launch of InteractiV. This is a platform designed to bring new possibilities in the way that users interact both between others and local businesses. At the time that it was first demonstrated, the idea behind InteractiV was that it could be used as an improvement to the voice call experience, as it was designed to give users the ability to more effectively collaborate. According to Samsung, InteractiV enables new and interesting ways for smartphone users to share content and applications during calls.
If we look at InteractiV from a peer-to-peer perspective, we find that users can share and interact with content in real time during a phone call. A prime example is that while on a VoLTE call with a person, one user will have the ability to flip through a photo album, allowing the other user to see the photos as they appear on their own device. While still on the call, both users can collaboratively sketch directly onto the images and save the modified photo for later use.
Developers can design their applications to leverage the InteractiV API giving users the ability to share their screen, information or media content when they are connected with other people, businesses or devices. These applications are then hosted and distributed by the InteractiV server which is located in the operator’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert) (IMS) core network.
It seems that there are almost limitless applications for the InteractiV platform. In addition to making your smartphone a more collaborative device, another way to use the platform is linking your smartphone and turning it into a security system. By using an app on a smart TV, the device’s camera can be used to look into the room, thus eliminating the need for a security camera.
These days, almost everyone uses their smartphone to call and order food. Sometimes restaurants make changes or add specials to their menus unfortunately you may not know about when calling. Samsung used the example of a using screen sharing so that the updated menus could be viewed while the customer is placing an order over the phone. These are just a few ways that the platform can be used to enhance the user experience.
Joonho Park, who is senior vice president and head of global sales & marketing, Networks Business, said "We originally envisioned InteractiV as a unique and seamless way to upgrade the traditional voice call experience into something more collaborative for users. It has since grown into something far more flexible, enabling rich terminal-to-terminal communications across any number of traditional usage scenarios¾whether a user is talking to a friend or booking a flight using VoLTE, watching a live broadcast via eMBMS, doing research on the Internet, or just casually playing games. In any of these cases, InteractiV provides a better opportunity to connect people with their friends, family or businesses."
On the enterprise side, network operators could potentially use InteractiV to create new revenue through the enhancement of voice services for customers. User-to-merchant applications provide significant value to businesses by increasing the ease with which they can engage customers. In addition, user-to-user applications could provide a premium service to individual customers, further improving the value of VoLTE over 3G voice. InteractiV has the ability to make mobile communication more seamless and engaging, which is something that can benefit individual users, business owners and operators alike.
Edited by Alisen Downey