Going Mainstream: Space Age Shades for Smartphones

Jan 19

Written By Sebastien Perez

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is a world-leader in innovation and manufacturing.

Their vision is to democratize a powerful technology that will transform the way the world connects, computes and communicates.

Their research has represented giant steps for XR (Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) and the 5G implementation process.

Qualcomm recently announced their newly-established partnerships with global operators to deliver XR viewers to consumers within less than a year.

That’s a promise I think they can keep. They already supply the world’s most popular AR/VR headsets with chip-sets so potent, they make that “high-grade” look like “regs”. Oof!

Space Age Shades

Qualcomm’s XR Viewers is a futuristic vision of what is possible for consumers today (not in another galaxy far, far away).

These devices unlock a new generation of immersive experiences using the latest generation of smartphones that ensure high bandwidth and low latency for the highest-quality XR experiences in a surprisingly slim (and may I say sexy?) form factor. Gasp!

XR Viewers have the potential to revolutionize Education, Gaming, E-Sports, Social Media, E-Commerce, and Entertainment, just to name a few multi-billion dollar industries.

It may even be the “killer app” for remote work with holographic telepresence using virtual collaboration platforms like Spatial!

Hold on to your holographic seats because Qualcomm is making neck-breaking progress with these devices as they will be available sooner than expected.

_“Nreal is supercharging the delivery of mixed reality glasses for all and we're thrilled to be leading the way on mass consumer adoption in collaboration with global operators and Qualcomm Technologies.

Nreal’s Nebula 3D system, which can enable smartphone apps and experiences in a mixed reality environment, a milestone in making XR accessible to consumers worldwide and to leading XR developers through our hardware-enhanced SDK offerings.

The Nreal SDK offers the best development and delivery platform available to develop consumer MR apps and continues our mission to offer fast and easy development and deployment of XR experiences on current and next-generation Snapdragon-powered devices.” - Chi Xu, CEO of Nreal

XR Optimized Certification Program

XR Viewers will benefit from the new Qualcomm XR Optimized Certification Program.

This program includes 5 key features that enhance users’ experience:

  • Six-Degrees-Of-Freedom (6DoF) head-tracking performance (viewer and smartphone)

  • Display calibration validation (viewer)

  • Motion to photon latency validation (viewer and smartphone)

  • Power and thermal test (viewer and smartphone)

  • Interoperability between viewer and smartphone

Confirmed Collaborators

According to the latest press release (26th of May 2020), Qualcomm established partnerships with 27 global operators.

  • OnePlus

  • OPPO

  • Orange

  • Panasonic

  • Pico Interactive

  • Shadow Creator

  • SK Telecom

  • SoftBank

  • Telefonica

  • Verizon

  • Vivo

  • Vodafone

  • ZTE

  • 3Glasses

  • ASUS

  • BlackShark

  • China Mobile

  • China Telecom

  • China Unicom

  • Deutsche Telekom

  • HTC

  • iQiYi Smart Tech

  • KDDI

  • KT Corporation

  • LG Uplus

  • _Nreal_

  • NTT DOCOMO, Inc.

The connections between Qualcomm and current industry-leaders in the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality domain are accelerating the cyberpunk future that we all dreamed of.