Huawei and Leica set up joint R&D center with a focus on AR and VR technologies

After the launch of the Leica-branded Huawei P9 camera smartphone, Leica and Huawei have now once again announced plans to work together on bigger things. The two companies have now announced plans for the a new research and design facility called the Max Berek Innovation Lab. It will work on optical systems and software-based technologies to improve imaging quality.Thew new R&D lab will focus on other important projects like the creation of computational imaging, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) solutions. Leica and Huawei also said that the lab will collaborate with German and international universities.Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei and Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, majority shareholder and chairman of the advisory board of Leica Camera AG, signed the agreement on the establishment of the ‘Max Berek Innovation Lab’ that adds to the previously announced partnership between the two brands.“In the future, over 90 percent of data traffic will be images and videos,” said Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei. “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.”“Huawei and Leica share not only enormous innovation power and years of research experience, but also their dedication to providing the highest quality standards. The Max Berek Innovation Lab offers us a historic opportunity to unite the resources and extensive expertise of both companies to pioneer game-changing technologies,” confirmed Markus Limberger, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Leica Camera AG and Director of the Max Berek Innovation Lab.While the optics that Huawei uses on its P9 smartphone still remains a mystery, the results are pretty impressive, as we found out in our full review. What was missing however was OIS, a feature that is common on flagships announced this year, including Apple's iPhone 7 models.