Samsung Electronics said on the 26th that it has won a string of major international awards for Coral in Focus, a coral reef protection project using its Galaxy camera technology Ocean Mode.
Since 2024, Samsung Electronics has been carrying out a coral reef restoration project using Galaxy camera technology with Scripps, the oceanography institute at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the U.S. nonprofit Seatrees.
Numerous coral reef photos collected via Galaxy AI smartphones are delivered to the Scripps institute to create 3D coral reef restoration maps and support various research. Local activist groups then carry out restoration work based on those findings.
The Coral in Focus project won gold in the Best Sustainability or Conservation Initiative institutional sector at the 2026 Halo Awards, a global social contribution honors program, earning high marks for technological innovation and global collaboration to protect coral reef ecosystems.
Now in its 24th year, the Halo Awards is a prestigious ceremony organized by the global social contribution group Engage for Good, selecting and honoring outstanding cases that create environmental and social value.
Samsung Electronics was also recognized for the Coral in Focus documentary, which captures cross-sector collaboration and the project's journey to protect marine ecosystems. The Coral in Focus documentary also won in the Coastal and Island Culture Award institutional sector at the 23rd International Ocean Film Festival, the oldest and largest ocean-focused film festival in North America, on the 10th.
In 2024, Samsung Electronics developed Ocean Mode, an underwater shooting-optimized mode, for this project to photograph coral reefs beneath the sea. Local activists, using Ocean Mode developed by Samsung Electronics, can ▲ reduce the excessive blue tone that occurs in underwater shooting to capture the coral's true colors and ▲ use an interval function that minimizes motion blur in final images based on optimized shutter speed and multi-frame video processing technology to shoot thousands of high-resolution coral photos at once.
Working with partners, Samsung Electronics has produced meaningful results across various restoration sites. Using Galaxy devices, it has built more than 80 3D coral reef models to date, and, based on that work, more than 20,000 corals have been planted.