Qualcomm launches AR2 Gen1 processor for Augmented Reality

Presented during Snapdragon Summit 2022, the new platform Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 arrives to inaugurate a new era of experiences in spatial computing and expand the reality we see to new horizons in a world where the real and the metaverse are increasingly mixed. In addition to new chipsets for smartphones, Qualcomm announced the new platform aimed at solving issues of wireless augmented reality through glasses, generating new possibilities with a technology that still has plenty of room for growth in the near future.

Ah, you can also check out our video showing all the news released at the event:

Developed for Augmented Reality

The union between Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Realities for a long time was obstructed by the need for wired devices to perform the processing through a dedicated device for this task and this reality has been modified in recent years with the arrival of chips focused on AR and RV.

Snapdragon will be at the center of the smart connected world, powering smartphones, tablets, notebooks, handhelds and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) glasses.

 Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobile, Compute and XR (MCX) Business

With the aim of enabling a world closer and closer between real and virtual beyond what we currently have on the market, Qualcomm has developed the new Snapdragon AR2 to revolutionize Augmented Reality glasses. Building on a multi-chip distributed processing architecture combined with custom IP blocks, the processor occupies a PCB area — the area of ​​the printed circuit board — 40% smaller on the glasses than the previous version, with a delivery of 250% more efficiency. in artificial intelligence performance, while spending about 50% less energy with the augmented reality glasses consuming less than 1W of power.

Enabling a richer augmented reality experience in eyewear that can be worn more comfortably with a smaller, more visually pleasing design, while increasing wear time and meeting the demands of consumers and businesses for using augmented reality eyewear for problem solving. problems that can range from 3D visualization of a project to the use of glasses to view QR code content.

“We created Snapdragon AR2 to address the unique challenges of virtual reality on glasses and deliver industry-leading processing, artificial intelligence and connectivity in an elegant package”

Hugo Swart, Vice President of XR Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Augmented Reality Distributed Processing Architecture 

The company aims to improve the balance between an architecture that allows for a reduction in the weight of the augmented reality glasses and a decrease in the width of the temples on both sides. For that the Snapdragon AR2 uses a multi-chip architecture that includes an augmented reality processor, an augmented reality coprocessor and a connectivity platform. 

In such a way, the Snapdragon AR2 manages to dynamically distribute the processing of latency-sensitive perception data directly to the glasses, that is, data that needs to be processed in an agile way for specific events, such as, for example, the detection of an object that is in front of the user. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon AR2 sends the more complex data processing to a smartphone device, PC or other devices that do the host work and that are compatible with Snapdragon, optimizing the computation of all data involved in the procedure.

• The new augmented reality processor is optimized to support up to nine simultaneous cameras to understand the user and the surrounding environment with low motion latency. Perception features have been improved including a dedicated hardware acceleration engine that improves user movement tracking and localization, an AI accelerator to reduce latency for more sensitive input interactions, and a reprojection engine for a smoother experience. smooth for the user.

• Augmented reality coprocessor captures camera and sensor data to enable eye tracking and iris authentication for rendering foveated, a technique that uses an integrated eye tracker to render portions of a scene that is being seen by the user while keeping surrounding areas blurred to optimize processing, helping to reduce the device's energy consumption.

• The connectivity platform uses the Qualcomm Fast Connect 7800, connection system that uses the technology Wi-Fi 7 to achieve less than 2ms latency between the augmented reality glasses and the smartphone or host devices. Supported by FastConnect XR Software Suite 2.0, the platform allows for better control of XR data with improved latency, reduced jitter — statistical variation of delay in data delivery over a network — and manages to avoid unwanted interference in the system.

“Microsoft worked closely with Qualcomm on the platform requirements for Snapdragon AR2 to help define the fundamental and specific technologies to unlock new possibilities in AR experiences”

Rubén Caballero, Corporate Vice President of Mixed Reality, Devices & Technology at Microsoft. 

augmented reality ecosystem

In addition to the technology of the augmented reality platform, the Qualcomm proved to be essential to provide an end-to-end solution consisting of hardware, suite of sensing and sensor technologies, and the software tools to create immersive experiences using augmented reality glasses. To enable developers to create augmented reality applications, Qualcomm announced that the Snapdragon AR2 and the platform Snapdragon 8 Gen2 will be optimized for Snapdragon Spaces, which is a development platform made to be a base that developers will work on to create augmented reality content on glasses to boost the entire segment.

A Qualcomm promises a new step towards the future of augmented reality. The integration between virtual elements in world scenes promises a revolution in the way we interact with the virtual world in a complete integration of reality with digital. In this way, the Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 arrives soon to the markets to be another big step towards this goal with technology working to help society in its activities.

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