Huawei, Leica join forces for research, innovation lab

Thought Huawei and Leica’s partnership was limited to the P9 and P9 Plus smartphones? Well, this might surprise you, then.

The two companies have announced a jointly operated “research and innovation centre”, dubbed the Max Berek Innovation Lab.

“The new lab, located at Leica’s global HQ in Wetzlar, Germany, will drive further development of optical systems and software-based technologies to improve imaging quality in a wide range of photographic and mobile device applications,” the duo said in an emailed press statement.

“Additional outcomes will include the creation of computational imaging, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) solutions.”

The Huawei and Leica lab will research photographic technology and other related fields

Huawei and Leica added that they would be working with German and international universities and institutions.

“In the future, over 90 percent of data traffic will be images and videos,” said Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei, in the statement. “The Max Berek Innovation Lab provides the capacity to establish an even closer partnership with Leica, leading to continuous improvements in image and video quality.”

As a result, we will deliver the most advanced innovations in the smartphone camera market and bring greater value to consumers.”

The name of the lab is a tribute of sorts to Max Berek, who is credited with creating the first Leica lenses.

What kind of innovative mobile photography techniques could we see? Here are eight examples of computational photography in smartphones.