Qualcomm Launches Its Own Snapdragon XR1 AR Smart Viewer Reference Design to Support AR Smartglasses Makers «Next Reality

The augmented reality smartglasses race gets a big newcomer that could significantly change the whole landscape.

On Tuesday, Qualcomm unveiled its own XR1 AR Smart Viewer Reference Design, a pair of smartglasses intended to provide OEMs (original equipment makers) with an easy solution for launching their own smartglasses products.

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Qualcomm’s XR1 offers a dynamic that allows the user to connect the smartglasses to a PC, an external puck computer or even a smartphone. Manufacturers using the XR1

can take advantage of the device’s dual black and white cameras, which allow for six degrees of freedom (6DoF) and image stabilization.

The device is tuned to be powered by the Snapdragon XR1 platform, which offers up to 30% less power consumption compared to comparable space smartglasses like the Nreal Light.

Qualcomm says the reference design was developed “in parallel” with the new ThinkReality A3, which explains some of the similarity of hardware design.

The binocular micro-OLED display, which offers “90Hz and blur-free function”, was developed in collaboration with the Chinese giant BOE in the field of electronic components, and the rest of the device was developed in collaboration with Goertek.

This new reference design will likely pave the way for something we’ve been predicting for a while, namely a wave of birth bath style AR smartglasses from China, now a simple solution to using an Android smartphone as the primary computing unit for a pair of AR -smartglasses is normalized.

Hugo Swart, Qualcomm’s vice president and general manager of XR, offered Next Reality a preview of the device last week during a unique VR briefing with Spatial. During the briefing, Swart’s avatar not only showed us the benefits of the new reference design, but also allowed us to use a virtual version of the XR1.

“The Snapdragon XR1 AR smart viewer marks a new chapter for our reference design portfolio and a major step in the evolution of AR viewers,” said Swart via his virtual avatar.