What is AI in the camera of the Xiaomi phone: a full analysis

Xiaomi smartphone owners often notice a small AI icon on their viewfinder screen, which automatically appears when they hover over objects ranging from food to landscapes, suggesting that complex computational processes are coming into play. Many users ignore this feature as a marketing ploy, but behind this acronym hides a powerful real-time image processing tool.

Artificial intelligence in mobile photography is not just a filter that is applied after shooting, it is a set of algorithms that analyzes the contents of the frame before you hit the shutter button. Understanding how the neural network interacts with the sensors of your device will allow you to take professional-level pictures using the full potential of the smartphone.

In this article, we will analyze in detail the mechanics of the AI Scene Detection, find out what parameters the processor changes when recognizing scenes, and determine in which cases it is better to forcefully disable the function to obtain more natural colors.

Today’s flagships and mid-range models from Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO are equipped with chipsets capable of performing trillions of operations per second. It is this computing power that allows the camera to instantly determine whether a person, animal, text or night city is in the frame.

⚠️ Attention: Regime AI The default can significantly oversaturate colors, making the pictures unnatural. If you appreciate realism, check the result after each frame.

The principle of operation of scenario recognition

The main task of the Scene Detection AI system is to classify the image, and the camera breaks the frame into thousands of small segments and compares them with a huge database stitched into the memory of the processor. Depending on what dominates the frame, the algorithm selects the optimal settings for exposure, white balance and saturation.

For example, when you hover over a green grass, the system recognizes that it's a landscape, and it increases the saturation of the green channel, while darkening the sky for contrast. If a face appears in the frame, priority shifts to the correct exposure of the skin, even if the background remains in the shade, a fundamental difference from conventional digital zooms, where the settings are static.

The Xiaomi Mi and Xiaomi 13/14 series devices use a more advanced version of recognition that takes into account up to 200 different scenes. The algorithm is able to distinguish between sunset and dawn or determine a specific type of food, whether it is pizza or fruit, adjusting the heat of shades accordingly.

• 🌿 Nature: strengthens the greenness of trees and blue sky, increases the contrast of clouds.
• 🍔 Food: Increases saturation of red and yellow tones, making dishes more appetizing.
• 🐈 Animals: Focuses on the hair and eyes, preventing lubrication when the pet moves.
• 🌃 Night: Reduces noise and pulls shadows, keeping details in dark areas of the frame.

It's important to understand that processing is done on the fly, you see previews already with corrections applied, which allows you to immediately evaluate the result, but it's worth remembering that the basic base of scenes is updated only when you update the firmware or the Camera application, so on older versions of MIUI recognition may work less accurately.

Technology for improving detail and HDR

In addition to scene recognition, Xiaomi’s AI cameras are actively involved in the process of creating the final image through HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology. When you take a picture in complex lighting conditions, for example, against the sun, the camera takes a series of frames with different exposures.

Then come the ISP (Image Signal Processor) and neural network algorithms, which combine these frames into one, selecting the best details from the light and dark areas. Without the intelligent data of these frames, the image would either be too dark or illuminated. Qualcomm's AiE (Artificial Intelligence Engine) algorithm, used in many Snapdragon processors, speeds up this process significantly.

The focus is on textures, where the smart algorithm analyzes the boundaries of objects and amplifies the microcontrast to make the image clearer, but there is a risk that excessive sharping can lead to artifacts and "digital noise" on homogeneous surfaces, such as the sky or walls.

The AI frame processing process:


1. Scene analysis (20-30 ms)




2. Capture of the RAW-frame series




3. Overlay of noise reduction




4. Application of the LUT (color profile) scene




5. Final rendering of JPEG/HEIF

In portrait mode, AI is responsible for blurring the background. It builds a depth map, separating the subject from the background. In new models like the Xiaomi 13 Pro, this is done with incredible accuracy, considering even transparent objects like glasses or voils.

The Impact of AI on Night Photography and Portraits

Night photography is the area where AI is most prominent. In Night Mode, the smartphone takes lots of long exposure shots. The algorithm aligns them to compensate for the shaking of the hands and sums up the light information. Without smart data, the final photo would be blurred or full of digital noise.

When you take portraits, it analyzes the lighting of the face, and if there's not enough light, the AI actually adds it, lightening the shadows on the face without touching the background, and it creates the effect of studio lighting, and it also works retouching, smoothing the skin, fixing the defects, and even changing the shape of the face in real time.

It's worth noting that zoom algorithms work, and when you use digital or hybrid zoom (like 2x or 5x on models without a telephoto lens), the neural network draws the missing pixels based on the trained data, which allows you to get a clearer picture than with a conventional crop, although the quality of optical zoom is still far from it.

⚠️ Note: When shooting moving objects at night AI may not be able to handle tracking, leading to "ghosts" or blurring of the object against a clear background.

Users often argue about whether to trust the machine in portraiture, on the one hand, the result is ready to publish on social networks, on the other hand, loses personality, and the skin can become similar to plastic due to aggressive smoothing.

Comparison of modes: AI on and AI off

To understand the real difference, you need to do a comparative analysis, and the table below shows the key differences in the behavior of the camera when the active and disabled intelligent assistant.

As you can see from the table, enabled AI aims to make the picture “selling” and bright immediately from the camera. This is great for Instagram or fast sending to instant messengers. However, for subsequent professional processing in Lightroom or VSCO, it is better to use the disabled mode or RAW format.

In "No AI" mode, you get a flatter, but informative image. It stores more detail in lights that, with the intelligence on, could be irretrievably lost due to increased contrast. For landscapes with a wide dynamic range, this is critical.

• 📸 For social media: it is better to leave AI flashy.
• 🎨 For retouching: turn it off AI, To have more freedom in editing.
• 🏃 For children and sports: turn off AI, avoiding shutter delay.

How to manage artificial intelligence settings

The AI function in Xiaomi smartphones is as simple as possible. Usually the switch is at the top of the viewfinder interface. However, different versions of the MIUI and HyperOS shell may have different layouts, and there are additional settings in the menu.

To access the advanced settings, go to the camera menu (three bars in the corner) and select Settings. There you can find “AI Improvement” or similar. In some firmware regions, this feature may be hidden or renamed “Scenarios”.

Path to settings:


Camera → Menu (three stripes) → Settings → Improvement with AI

Also worth mentioning is Magic Eraser and other gallery features that also work on AI, which allow you to remove extra objects from your photo after you take a photo, and these features may require an Internet connection and a Mi Account.

If you upgraded your phone but the AI function is gone or is not working properly, try clearing the Camera app cache. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps → Camera → Clean. This often solves problems with the recognition modules hanging.

Problems and limitations of algorithms

Despite the progress, the AI in mobile cameras is not without its flaws. The main problem is the erroneous recognition of scenes. The camera can take gray asphalt for the sky and try to make it blue, or see the face where it is not, beginning to blur the background incorrectly.

Another problem is skin plasticity, and aggressive noise cancellation and bitification often remove the texture of the skin, turning the portrait into a wax figure. For many users, this is a crucial factor in turning off the function. It's also worth mentioning the increased power consumption: the constant operation of the neural network puts the battery down faster.

⚠️ Note: When taking pictures of documents or QR-code-regime AI It can try to "improve" the contrast of text by making it unreadable.

And the algorithms can also conflict, like nighttime and video stabilization, and in an attempt to make the frame lighter, the system can increase shutter speed, which will lubricate the video as you walk, and understanding these limitations helps you anticipate the outcome and avoid marriage.

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Expert advice: For shooting documents, use the special mode "Documents" in the menu "More", it disables unnecessary improvements and aligns the perspective automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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The AI in Xiaomi’s camera is a powerful tool for quick shooting, but it requires control. For better results, experiment with turning the feature on and off depending on the plot.