IFA 2017 was launched on September 1st in Berlin, Germany. Especially eye catching of all were the Korean start up products, which shone brightly with new ideas among various attention attracting products from global IT companies.

Amidst those, the ‘sgnl’, product of Samsung Electronics C-Lab’s first ever venture group, ‘The Team’, attracted the eyes and ears of foreign buyers with its unique UX. sgnl features a smart strap that allows incoming/outgoing phone calls when someone places a finger in their ear while wearing the strap on their wrist. The principle of this product uses the body conduction unit (BCU) installed on the device to transform the vocal signal to the vibration, which in turn creates sound with the vibration that is transferred through the hand. Because sgnl transmits sound using the body as its medium, the sound is not transferred to the surrounding area, further guaranteeing the privacy of the user.

The user can not only use sgnl with a smart watch, but can also use the 'fingertip call' just by changing a regular watch strap to a sgnl. If there is no watch to be worn, it can also be used as a smart band. sgnl can also track fitness, and send call reminders and alarms through its device specific application.

The exhibition allowed the foreign buyers and visitors to touch and experience the sgnl first hand. Reactions from foreign buyers who experienced sgnl in Germany were especially astounding. A great amount of enthusiastic calls were reportedly received from foreign vendors even before the opening of the exhibition.

At IFA 2017, in addition to the sgnl product created for fingertip calling, The Team introduced sgnl S, created for analog watch user. sgnl S is a smart strap with the most commonly used functions such as notification and fitness tracking. Users can experience the identical functions as a smart band through simply replacing the normal watch’s strap with sgnl S.