At CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Qualcomm exposed the on-device AI abilities of the Snapdragon XR2 +Gen 2 chip for virtual and combined reality headsets. Throughout a Jan. 10 keynote, Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon discussed enterprise use cases for virtual reality, including offering digital environments for training. He recommended 3 concerns VR and MR might address for business: “How do you train individuals? How do you fully immerse because digital environment? How do you progress communications?” In addition, Amon discussed his predictions for the future of AI-enhanced phones.
Keep in mind: This article was updated to show the Jan. 10 Qualcomm keynote. TechRepublic is covering CES 2024 remotely.
Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chips improve combined and virtual reality meetings
The Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 is the follow up to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 Platform for AI, VR and blended reality. The Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 offers the following:
- 4.3 K by 4.3 K per eye resolution.
- 90 frames per second.
- Supports 12 or more concurrent video cameras for movement tracking
- Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 and Bluetooth 5.2 connection.
The Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 has greater GPU frequency by 15% and CPU frequency by 20% compared to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2. That helps the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 offer smoother “room-scale screens, life-size overlays and virtual desktops,” said Hugo Swart, vice president and general supervisor of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., in a press release.
SEE: In more CES 2024 news, HP debuted its Spectre x360 16 2-in-1 and Spectre x360 14 2-in-1 laptops efficient in running regional AI work. (TechRepublic)
“Our task was to develop a computing engine that could make that innovation (AI) run pervasively,” Amon said throughout Qualcomm’s CES keynote. “We are at a point that those (AI) abilities in the processors and semiconductors are becoming available. The next action is to establish those use cases and applications.”
For companies and employees, that implies more efficient virtual desktops, virtual meetings and virtual presentations. Keep in mind that this doesn’t necessarily mean generative AI working on a headset; instead, the single-chip AI performance assists monitor all the data needed to combine digital and physical images.
“Spatial computing (is) going to be another computing platform that is going to eventually get a lot of scale,” Amon said during the keynote.
Qualcomm’s competing with Apple, Intel and NVIDIA
Samsung and Google will use the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 in their planned virtual truth offerings (Figure A) operating on Android, which might ultimately complete with the Apple Vision Pro. The Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 presently takes on Intel’s AI PC innovation for light-weight gadgets and vehicle, along with NVIDIA’s semiconductors.
Figure A
The reference platform for Qualcomm’s VR and MR headset. A recommendation platform
is a proof of idea for prospective hardware applications. Image: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Qualcomm expects AI-enhanced phones Throughout his keynote, Amon went over Qualcomm’s history in the cellphone area. Developing chips on which to run AI represents an advancement of mobile phone innovation, he stated, however he does not predict AI-powered devices will replace today’s phones.
Instead, Amon said, “What’s going to happen now is the phone is going to have a different function, which is not only what it utilized to do where the phone is good for all the apps you have, however likewise the phone is going to be interacting with the cloud. The phone is not going anywhere, but it is going to be enhanced by AI.”
For example, Amon stated, a person might ask a generative AI assistant to call an Uber. Instead of utilizing the Uber app on the phone, the generative AI assistant may link directly to Uber through the cloud.
Qualcomm’s automobile tech news at CES 2024
Qualcomm continued the traditional CES pattern of displaying the current automobile tech with its Snapdragon Digital Chassis platform, which allows connected vehicle services for on-the-go work and life effectiveness. Other linked cars and truck offerings from Qualcomm being demoed at CES 2024 include:
- Snapdragon Ride Platform, which helps global car manufacturers and Tier-1 providers build automated driving solutions as much as Level 3 driving assistance functions such as lane keeping and immediately preserving speed.
- Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC, central computing for digital cockpit, driver support and certain self-governing driving functions on a single system-on-chip.
- Snapdragon Car-to-Cloud Solutions supply a method for companies to push upgrades to linked car services.
- An extremely efficient cloud-native environment for vehicle application advancement and release supplied in partnership with AWS.
- Snapdragon Digital Chassis SoCs for Two-wheelers for small vehicles and farming or farming cars.
Among the upgrades is Qualcomm’s “next generation Gen AI-enabled digital cockpits” for generative AI on the edge (in this case, on the go). That suggests cars and trucks, depending upon individual brand and app offerings, can run generative AI apps for dynamic updates of info relevant to chauffeurs on the roadway. Services and suggestions can be personalized, and apps can expect the motorist’s choices and requirements.
“Our commitment to advancing automobile technology in assistance of international automakers, Tier-1 suppliers and our environment partners is helping form the future of software-defined vehicles and is accelerating us into a new period for the vehicle industry,” stated Nakul Duggal, senior vice president and general manager of vehicle and cloud computing at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., in a press release.
