CEO George Chao recognized at VivaTech 2024
May is shaping up to be a month where companies will be announcing new AI features for their products. Following OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, Honor has announced a four-layer AI architecture for its Android skin, MagicOS. Additionally, the company has partnered with Google Cloud to provide Gen-AI experiences on its devices and is looking to enhance the portrait experience with AI in its next series. Honor has partnered with Harcourt Studio in Paris, known for its black and white portraits of celebrities.
Honor’s four-layer AI architecture aims to use cross-device and cross-OS AI as the foundation for an “open ecosystem,” sharing “computing power and services across devices and operating systems.” The architecture helps personalize phone interactions through “resource allocation and intent-based human-computer interaction.” In essence, this is Honor’s version of Apple Continuity feature using AI.
Honor’s 4-layer AI architecture
Honor uses generative AI at the app level (four-layer AI architecture) to improve user experience: The top layer of cloud AI includes Google’s assistance on privacy and providing an on-device Gen-AI experience.
It’s interesting to see the use cases and how they differentiate themselves from competitors. Earlier this year at Mobile World Congress, Honor used an eye-tracking feature they call Magic Capsule (part of their intent-based UI approach) to drive a car with their phone. We’re still waiting for the feature to be rolled out globally, but Honor has been great at developing features so far, and we hope to see a more aggressive rollout.
Honor has partnered with Harcourt Studio to create portraits for the Honor 200 series.
The 9 steps of the Harcourt Studio Method
In another announcement regarding the upcoming Honor 200 series, the company is also partnering with Harcourt Studio in Paris. Honor’s partnership is very specific. Unlike OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Vivo, which partner with camera manufacturers on various elements such as lens manufacturing, camera software adjustments, etc., Honor is leveraging the studio’s portrait photography expertise to provide AI enhancements for the Honor 200 lineup. We’re fine-tuning the portrait experience.
Honor says it uses AI to learn from Harcourt Studio’s vast dataset of portraits, breaking down the entire portrait shooting process into nine separate steps. The company claims to have perfectly replicated Studio Harcourt’s method, and will soon put this method to the test in a review of his Honor smartphone, which is scheduled to be released on June 12th.
The Honor 200 series is already available for pre-order in China through the company’s website. The back has a dual-tone design, and the front camera notch is smaller than the Magic 6 Pro. Both the Honor 200 and 200 Pro are said to be equipped with a 50MP main camera and a 5,200mAh battery that supports 100W fast charging.
