LG Electronics (LG) will introduce the first of a suite of AI technologies for its smartphones at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The new technology will be featured in the 2018 version of the LG V30, LG’s most advanced flagship smartphone to date.

LG spent more than a year researching how AI should be implemented in smartphones, long before announcing LG ThinQ at CES 2018. This research focused primarily on making AI-based solutions with the objective to deliver a unique and more intuitive user experience, focusing on the camera and voice recognition. The result is a suite of AI technologies that is aligned closely with the needs and usage behavior of today’s users.

Vision AI: Next Generation Image Recognition On top of an already impressive list of camera features that include dual lenses, wide-angle low-distortion lenses, and the all-glass Crystal Clear Lens, Vision AI makes the camera of the LG V30 even smarter and easier to use.

Vision AI automatically analyzes objects and recommends the best shooting mode from among eight modes: portrait, food, pet, landscape, city, flower, sunrise, and sunset. The angle of view, color, reflections, backlighting, and saturation levels are all taken into consideration as the phone analyzes images in its database to determine what the camera is focusing on in order to recommend the best setting. For example, pointing the camera at a plate of pasta will result in food mode being invoked, resulting in warmer colors and heightened sharpening for the most appetizing shot possible.

LG collaborated with a partner in image recognition to analyze over a 100 million images in order to develop the phone’s image recognition algorithms. Over one thousand unique image categories were created for more accurate image analysis, resulting in better shooting mode recommendations.

Another feature of Vision AI provides shopping advice through smart image recognition. By simply pointing the camera at an object, LG’s Vision AI can automatically scan QR codes, initiate an image search or provide shopping options including where to purchase the item for the lowest price and other similar products that the customer might find of interest.

A new low-light shooting mode automatically brightens images in dim environments by a factor of two. Instead of conventional methods of measuring external light levels, Vision AI instead measures the brightness of the actual image that will be recorded, resulting in brightness levels that are adjusted much more accurately.

Voice AI: LG-Exclusive Voice Commands Another new feature is Voice AI that allows users to run apps and change settings through voice commands alone. Working alongside Google Assistant, the 32 LG-exclusive Voice AI commands – up from 23 commands in 2017 – Voice AI eliminates the need to search through menu options and allows for direct selection of specific functions.

LG Exclusive Voice Commands for Google Assistant

                                                                                                               VOICE COMMAND                                                FEATURE                                    (PRECEDE WITH “OK GOOGLE”) 1                                     Wide-angle photo                                Take a picture on a wide angle 2                                     Wide-angle selfie                                 Take a selfie on a wide angle 3                                     Wide-angle video                               Record a video on a wide angle 4                                Wide-angle selfie video                       Take a selfie video on a wide angle 5                                          Cine Video                                        Open camera on Cine Video 6                                   Expert Photo Mode                              Open camera on a manual mode 7                                   Expert Video Mode                              Open camera on a manual video 8                                Cine Video (Romantic)                              Take a romantic Cine Video 9                             Cine Video (Melodramatic)                     Take a melodramatic Cine Video 10                                 Cine Video (Thriller)                                 Take a thriller Cine Video 11                                Cine Video (Beauty)                                   Take a beauty Cine Video 12                            Cine Video (Blockbuster)                  Take a summer blockbuster Cine Video 13                       Cine Video (Romantic Comedy)              Take a romantic comedy Cine Video 14                           Cine Video (Documentary)                        Take a documentary Cine Video 15                              Cine Video (Landscape)                              Take a scenery Cine Video 16                                  Cine Video (Drama)                                 Take a drama Cine Video 17                               Cine Video (Historic)                                Take a historical Cine Video 18                               Cine Video (Mystery)                                  Take a mystery Cine Video 19                                  Cine Video (Noir)                                         Take a noir Cine Video 20                                Cine Video (Classic)                                    Take a classic Cine Video 21                              Cine Video (Flashback)                              Take a flashback Cine Video 22                                Cine Video (Pop Art)                                   Take a pop art Cine Video 23                              Expert Mode (Graphy)                                Open camera with Graphy

NEW FOR 2018

24                                  Panoramic Photo                                                        Pending 25                                      Food Photo                                                              Pending 26                           Time-lapse Photo (Video)                                                Pending 27                                Slow-motion Video                                                      Pending 28                                  Low-light Photo                                                         Pending 29                                    AI Cam Photo                                                           Pending 30                                     Image Search                                                           Pending 31                                QR Code Scanning                                                       Pending 32                                  Shopping Search                                                        Pending

Upgrading and Expanding Smartphone AI LG’s strategy for smartphones is to continue expanding its AI capabilities while also refining existing features to make them more convenient to use. Certain AI features will not be limited to new LG models only, but also to existing LG smartphones via over-the-air updates, taking into consideration various hardware specifications and stability of LG smartphone models for maximum user experience.

“As we communicated last month at CES, the future for LG lies in AI, not just hardware specs and processing speeds,” said Ha Jeung-uk, senior vice president and business unit leader for LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Creating smarter smartphones will be our focus going forward and we are confident that consumers will appreciate the advanced user experience with the enhanced V30 that many have been asking and waiting for.”

Attendees of MWC 2018 are encouraged to visit LG’s booth in Hall 3 of Fira Gran Via from February 26 until March 1 for more information.