After the announcements of two new SoCs, Qualcomm presents a new platform for the development of augmented reality glasses with an associated chip: the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1.
Qualcomm announces the evolution of its chips dedicated to augmented reality (AR): here is the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chip. Generation 1 is added, with obviously improved performance. This chip mainly comes with a ” reference design of glasses designed to be sold to brands that will market them to the final public.
The manufacturer has the ambition, within one to four years, to connect virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses in 5G with vision devices (glasses, smartphones, computers) while Microsoft has reportedly canceled the development of its Holo Lens 3.
A new reference model of augmented reality glasses
Therefore, in its press release, Qualcomm presents a new reference model for augmented reality glasses, called AR Smart Viewer Reference Design, with the particularity of working without cables. AN reference design, is a kind of pattern ready to be copied. The glasses are actually intended for manufacturers to create their own models for the final public.
Qualcomm claims that “cThis wireless reference design enables OEMs and ODMs to prototype and bring premium, lightweight AR glasses to market to enable immersive experiences that open up the metaverse. “. Augmented reality binoculars already exist, like the HTC Vive Flow that we had in our hands.
Thinnest and best augmented reality glasses
Developed by Goertek, the XR2 reference model’s hardware is 40% thinner and is said to have better weight distribution for added comfort. On the display side, SeeYA provides a ” Dual micro-OLED binocular displays that enable 1920 x 1080 resolution per eye and frame rates up to 90Hz, plus motion blur for a seamless AR experience “. We also know that ” The Smart Viewer’s dual monochrome cameras and RGB camera enable six degrees of freedom (6DoF) of head and hand tracking with gesture recognition for precision AR “. The weight is 115 grams and the battery capacity is 650 mAh: Qualcomm has not announced autonomy for its model.
Qualcomm notes that its new wireless reference model is actually lighter and thinner than its wired predecessor.
Augmented reality goes truly wireless
Qualcomm announces that ” reference design enables shared wireless processing architecture to distribute computing workloads between smartphone and AR glasses “. The wireless connection offers a latency of less than 3 ms thanks to a new Wifi chip.
To ensure a stable and efficient connection between a device and the AR glasses, Qualcomm proposes to use the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 chip. It allows connecting to WiFi 6 devices, with a frequency band that reaches up to 6 GHz. Qualcomm is releasing a software package called Fast Connect XR to improve latency, reduce interference, but also have low-power operation to improve the autonomy of the glasses.
These wireless augmented reality glasses are available to select Qualcomm partners and should be available on a larger scale in the coming months. Qualcomm has also just announced its Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and its Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, SoCs dedicated to smartphones. Many manufacturers have been developing augmented reality glasses for several years, such as Samsung or Apple, but nothing official at the moment.
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