¹ It is interesting how Hallyu and Galaxy are found in the same project. How was Body Canvas created?

At that time, Blackpink began endorsing Samsung Galaxy.

Samsung was considering how to attract the fanbase who can become Galaxy mobile phone users at the same time.

The HOHOHO members strived to meet the needs by building the right solution.

² What functions of Galaxy S10 did you focus on?

We especially paid attention to the “ultra wide camera.” It refers to the three camera lenses near the top of the rear of the phone; the ultra wide camera allows you to take photo and video with a 123-degree field

It is possible to fit one person in the picture from 50cm distance. This function delivers incredible convenience because this distance is shorter by 2.5 times compared to the normal camera.

We decided to use the ultra wide camera to design the Blackpink solution.

³ How did you merge the camera and Blackpink in one solution?

When we worked on this project, K-Pop dance cover was becoming widely popular in many countries. People danced in a town square or a park, and they uploaded the video clips on YouTube.

At that time, the popular songs by Blackpink such as “Playing with Fire” and “Ddu Du Ddu Du” were gaining much traction on the global stage. There are a number of dance cover videos uploaded at that time.

What you need in order to make your dance cover is a large space. However, we changed this notion by using the ultra wide camera, which can allow people to make dance cover even in a limited space.

⁴ How can users do dance cover in the experience zone?

There is a two-meter kiosk with 80-inch screen, which is connected with Kinect. On the other side, there is a blue screen stage. In front of the stage,

Galaxy S10 faces the stage with the ultra wide camera. The Kinect recognizes a person on the stage and tracks his or her motion by recognizing joint movement.

This is how the dance cover works, and you can use the camera to make a dance cover video and see how you dance in real time.

⁵ We want to hear more about the user scenario.

First, you need to be on the blue screen stage. Pick a song from the mobile phone in front of you; there are six choices of music, including “Ddu Du Ddu Du” and “Playing with Fire” by Blackpink. After choosing your music, proceed with the tutorial before making your dance cover.

You can dance for thirty seconds, and there are games you can play at the same time. There are three score sections, which let you know if you are doing “excellent,” “good,” or “bad.” In the end, you will see the final score as well. You can play this game with your friends like a competition,

or you can play it multiple times to improve your moves. After making your dance cover, you can receive the video clip so that you can upload it on your Instagram account or other social media accounts.

⁵ Can you name a special feature for user’s experience?

We have a visual effect that can be added to user’s silhouette.

It corresponds to the music so that you can look like you dance well even if you are a terrible dancer.

You can also receive your dance cover video and compare the silhouette video with the original video.

⁶ We want to hear more about how you developed content. Was there any interesting event during the process?

In the experience zone, you can dance for thirty seconds. We did not want to make it longer because we were concerned that it might make some users get bored with delay. We made each dance cover session short yet impressive. Therefore, we had to shorten the music from three minutes to thirty seconds, since most of the Blackpink songs are three minutes long. We also had to simplify the original choreography.

We had to keep the main choreography yet modify some of the moves so that everyone can enjoy the content without finding it too difficult. To this end, we recruited a professional dancer to create a 30-second choreography and filmed a video in front of the blue screen so that it can serve as a guideline. We also found a professional songwriter to shorten the soundtrack into thirty seconds yet keep the essence of the songs.

There was an interesting finding. We needed to make sure that the guideline that we provide is easy enough for everyone to follow. However, we found out that it is impossible to make the choreography much easier. The professional dancer had to make the moves as simple as possible to make sure that everyone can copy. In the end, the dancer made the dance moves look almost like stretches. It was refreshing for us to see the gap between professional dancers and non-professionals.

⁷ What technologies were used to develop the solution?

We developed chroma-key technology that can go with specific range of colors by using OpenGL 3.0 in Android to use the technology with the ultra wide camera.

We added the visual effect on top of this technology. It was the first time to use this technology in the field, which explains why we faced multiple challenges.

While there were many trials and errors in the process to commercialize OpenGL 3.0 along with the solution, we successfully completed the project in the end.

⁸ We were told that there are two venues in France and Japan. What did you have to consider for each venue?

The first issue we needed to consider was language. We set the default language as English, and added French and Japanese options. Moreover,

we modified the booth module since each venue has different size and composition. We added less dynamic music choices for the venue in Asia

because it has been found that the users in Asia are less inclined to cover dynamic choreography. On the other hand, we added more powerful and dynamic choices to the venue in France.

⁹ Last question. How was the reaction after launching the solution?

Some users were too shy to try the solution because you need to actually move to enjoy this content. However, it took only a few tries until people felt comfortable with dancing.

It made us feel great after hearing that many users greatly enjoyed this experience. We want this solution to provide more delightful experience for people via Galaxy, and we hope it will help spread the Hallyu content to a wider region.

If you would like to try, you can visit the Galaxy Studio in Harajuku, Japan, or the Galaxy Studio in Paris, France. Please feel free to visit and provide your feedback.