For the launch of the Mate 20 pro we wanted to change the narrative and make it more human-centred. We wanted to show that the new Huawei phone is more than just the latest gadget. After all, technological advancement is truly impressive when it can change our lives for the better.

Thus, we decided to show the capabilities of the Dual AI chipset by helping those, for whom the smartphone can play a life changing role – the blind and visually impaired.

By creating an an app experience designed for the blind, but that sighted people could also try, we created a unique brand experience.

For the blind and visually impaired the experience helped solve a problem they face in their daily communication with others. For sighted people the brand experience allowed them to gain insight into the life of a visually impaired person and experience the power of AI.

Huawei Facing Emotions- An AI powered app that lets the blind and visually impaired 'see' emotions by translating them into sounds.

Facing Emotions utilises the Mate20 Pro’s powerful AI and camera’s to translate key human facial emotions into short unique sounds. Making it possible for the blind and visually impaired to have a richer experience when speaking face to face with others.

For most consumers the Dual AI chipset in the new Huawei flagship phone is just technobabble. We wanted to show that it is more than just another new gadget. After all, technological advancement is only truly impressive when it changes our lives for the better. No one is more aware of this truth than those, who rely on technology on a daily basis to lead “normal”, independent lives.

We decided to cooperate with the blind and visually impaired - a group, which like no other, relies in their daily tasks on the help of smart tools. Smartphones help the blind and visually impaired read, write, commute and perform many other practical tasks independently. But there is one particular tasks that no smartphone could do until now… read the expressions on people’s faces. A big disadvantage considering that 55% of our communication is nonverbal.

The Facing Emotions project began with intensive research and development to create the AI based technology. The AI was taught to detect the emotion of the face of the person with whom a blind user is speaking to, and then translate this emotion into a simple language of sounds.

7 universal emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, contempt, anger, disgust were selected as the most used, most necessary and most universally understood among various cultures.

The app design, flow and user experience we created in direct partnership with the blind community who worked closely with the development team to create an app intuitive to their needs.

The creation of the 7 sounds that represented each of the emotions were co-created by a Polish blind composer Tomasz Bielinski. The sounds had to be simple, easy to remember and non-intrusive.

The App was released on the Google play store in over 20 languages.

The app was released globally on the Google play store in over 20 languages.

A short form documentary film explaining the technology was released along with a digital campaign featuring Insta stories, YouTube pre rolls, and Facebook placements.

The film and digital campaign featured 3 blind people from different parts of the world and showed the touching moments in their lives they wanted to be able to use the app to experience the emotions on the face of their loved ones.

The campaign created conversation in global and local lifestyle and news media, with over 340 million media impressions and over 1.4 million dollars in earned media.