Honor’s ‘Robot Phone’ Camera Dances to Your Music
▼ Summary
– Honor plans to launch its “Robot phone” with a movable camera arm in the second half of this year, and it can respond autonomously to situations.
– The robotic phone has a personality, responding with gestures like head shakes, and can interact via text and voice for tasks like suggesting outfits.
– It features a 200-megapixel camera on a three-axis gimbal with stabilization, enabling smooth rotation and cinematic shots via features like Spinshot.
– The AI-powered robotic camera allows for fluid video calls with object tracking, similar to an enhanced version of Apple’s Center Stage.
– Honor developed a custom micro motor and foldable phone techniques to create a sturdy, four-degree-of-freedom gimbal system integrated into the phone body.
Honor has unveiled more details about its innovative “Robot Phone,” a device featuring a unique movable camera arm that responds to its environment. The company plans to launch this distinctive smartphone in the latter half of the year, showcasing its capabilities ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This device represents a significant step in integrating robotic elements into consumer mobile technology.
Beyond its primary function, the robotic camera arm is designed with a playful personality. It can communicate through gestures like head shakes and even dance in time to music. Users can interact with the phone’s assistant via text or voice commands. In a demonstration, Honor showed the robot nodding or shaking its camera to suggest clothing options in response to a user’s query about apparel.
The core of the device is a 200-megapixel camera mounted on a sophisticated three-axis gimbal with stabilization technology. This system allows the camera to rotate smoothly, capturing stable videos and high-quality photos. A dedicated Super Steady mode enhances video capture, while a feature called Spinshot enables cinematic shots by rotating the robotic camera 90 or 180 degrees.
The robotic functionality also transforms video calls. With AI-powered object tracking, the camera can automatically follow the user’s movements, promising a more fluid and engaging experience. This technology aims to significantly advance the concept of automated framing seen in other devices.
To power these movements, Honor developed a proprietary micro motor. The company applied engineering principles from its foldable phone hinges to ensure the robotic arm is both durable and compact enough to house a four-degree-of-freedom gimbal system within a standard phone body. The arm utilizes the same high-strength materials as the hinge in the Honor Magic V6, boasting an impressive tensile strength of 2800 MPa.
Alongside the Robot Phone, Honor introduced several other products at its event. The lineup includes the new Honor Magic V6 foldable, notable for its substantial 6,600 mAh battery, the Honor MagicPad 4 tablet, and the Honor MagicBook 14 laptop, rounding out an ecosystem of connected devices.
(Source: TechCrunch)
