Honor will launch a new smartphone on May 22, the Honor 400. Honor has teased an AI feature on its next phone in anticipation of the official release. Called “AI Image to Video” and developed with Google, it can generate videos from images. The effect is quite disconcerting.
Honor’s “Image to Video” feature is based on Google’s Veo 2 video AI model. It generates a short 5-second video from a static image. Basically, Veo 2 creates videos from text prompts. If you have the Gemini Advanced paid subscription, you also have access to Veo 2.
The manufacturer was very tight-lipped about how this AI function works. But it did share a few video examples. All were generated from famous paintings. There’s no point in this article, but I’m going to list them here anyway, because a little culture never hurts:
The Lady with an Ermine, Leonardo da Vinci (1488)
Les Ménines, Diego Vélasquez (1656)
The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds, Georges de La Tour (1636-1638)
Self-portrait with gray felt hat, Vincent Van Gogh (1887)
The videos generated from these paintings are quite convincing, if a little eerie. It’s a bit like the Mona Lisa effect, but with a twist. The impression that the painting is following you with its eyes, or that it’s moving on its own. Except that the illusion of movement is real this time, and we’ll just have to see how it works with photos of real people.
Honor explains that this function will be directly integrated into the local photo gallery. However, the videos generated should not be saved locally on your smartphone. Everything should go through Google’s cloud. Honor has given no details on this point.
The manufacturer did not specify how long this function would remain exclusive to Honor or whether it would be free. Perhaps there will be a limit to the number of videos you can generate each day, beyond which you’ll have to pay.
What do you think of this feature? And what do you think of the Honor 400? Are AI functions like these really a selling point in your eyes? Or are they just gimmicks?