Qualcomm Hopes to Recapture AR for Android

While Apple is virtually to brand a big motility into augmented reality, Google's attempts so far have been impractical at best. But Google now has a major ally: chipmaker Qualcomm—currently at war with Apple over license fees—which says it will enable a much broader range of Android phones to do AR.

The keys volition be Qualcomm's new Spectra Module Plan and 2d-generation Spectra paradigm processors, both announced this morning time. The module program gives Android telephone makers easy access to pre-configured, AR-compatible two- and iii-camera setups, while the new image signal processor (ISP) includes the ability to runway location through a 3D surround.

"This is the first of its kind and will be available to the entire Android phone ecosystem via our Camera Module Program and will exist made available in our adjacent-generation flagship SoC," Qualcomm said in a statement.

While virtual reality has gotten a lot of buzz and so far thanks to gaming systems similar the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, most analysts predict that augmented reality volition outpace VR starting in 2022. (Virtual reality blacks out the world around y'all; augmented reality enhances information technology.)

At Apple'southward programmer conference in June, the company announced ARKit, a ready of software tools for developing AR applications. ARKit will work with existing iPhones, but you really need at least two cameras for the depth-sensing in more advanced AR. While Apple tree hasn't publicly connected the dots, most observers expect this year's iPhones to include wide dual-camera AR capabilities, and for those abilities to filter back into the dual-photographic camera iPhone 7 Plus. That will immediately give Apple a lead when it comes to installed, AR-capable devices.

Google has had an AR system called Tango for more than a year now, but it hasn't become popular because it requires a specific three-camera setup that's difficult and expensive for manufacturers to implement. So far, it has but appeared on two phones, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro and the Asus Zenfone AR (pictured higher up), neither of which have been huge sellers.

Enter Spectra

Spectra is the (Internet access provider) in Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile platforms, which ability virtually of the Android smartphones sold in the U.s..

The visitor is offering three new Spectra modules to phone makers. One has an iris scanner and doesn't accept any AR capabilities. The 2d has ii cameras for "passive" AR. The third has three cameras, one of which is an infrared photographic camera that can map objects and spaces in 3D, for high-quality, active AR like you currently go with Microsoft'southward HoloLens. Of course, Android phone makers will exist welcome to employ their own camera modules with the new ISPs equally well.

Qualcomm is very, very proud of "signal cloud," which provides 3D mapping of objects and spaces ten-15 feet abroad in real time using the new module'southward infrared camera. It will let for flexible, responsive augmented reality even in depression light.

The point cloud besides allows for some great VR tricks. Considering standalone VR headsets powered past Spectra will be able to see the position of your hands, they could work with virtual controllers rather than physical ones.

"Depth sensing will revolutionize standalone VR and AR headsets as tracking and object abstention becomes more than precise and mitt-held controllers obsolete," the company said in a statement.

There are still a lot of missing pieces in this announcement. Google hasn't appear that Tango volition piece of work with two-camera setups. And the new Spectra ISP won't be a standalone product; it'll be office of next year'due south Snapdragon, which most people call the 845 although its official name hasn't been announced yet.

This shows one of the major challenges of the Android globe. If Apple wants to do AR, Apple just does AR. But if, say, LG wants to exercise AR, it has to wait for both Qualcomm and Google to marshal properly. If all the pieces come together, this will put broad AR capabilities in flagship phones around the middle of adjacent yr: the Galaxy S9, LG V40 and Moto Z3 generations.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/news/17006/qualcomm-hopes-to-recapture-ar-for-android

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