Reference design speeds development of AR, VR smart viewers

Qualcomm Technologies has announced a new Qualcomm Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 Platform. The new reference design integrates Tobii eye tracking and is intended to help reduce product development time for both AR and VR smart Viewers. With device OEMs and technology ecosystem partners in mind, the Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design is a VR form factor, built in collaboration with Goertek, designed to help decrease product development time of both AR and VR Smart Viewers.

“The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design takes advantage of the XR1 processing power and allows both consumers and the enterprise to access an enhanced content offering,” said Hugo Swart, head of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “By distributing the workload and tapping into the compute power of host devices via tethering to users’ smartphone or PC, the reference designs’ additional features like eye tracking and 6DoF controllers unlock a deeper level of XR immersion.”

Key offerings of the Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design include the following features:

• Movement Tracking: The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design features six-degrees of freedom (6DoF) movement for room scale XR experiences. With two dedicated 6DoF cameras for body tracking, users can walk around without the need for external motion sensors.
• Hand Tracking: The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design supports full hand tracking and gesture tracking – tap, zoom, pinch, scroll – which could be used for interactions with virtual objects.
• Eye Tracking: To reduce power consumption using foveated rendering, Qualcomm Technologies worked with Tobii to have integrated eye tracking. This provides superior intuitive interfaces and enables gaze direction for fast interactions within the virtual environment.
• 6DoF Controllers: Controllers are fundamental for interaction especially in VR gaming. Snapdragon Smart Viewer VR Reference Design provides 6DoF controllers with the ability to support vision-based controllers for VR gaming and productivity applications.
• Display: The display panel – built with JDI – enables consumers to be immersed in their favorite content by supporting smooth experiences with 72Hz refresh rate and 2K resolution per eye.
• Standalone Mode: In addition to tethering the headset via USB-C to a host device, the Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design also delivers high-quality experiences in ‘standalone mode’, where all the computing is done directly on the device. It taps into the XR1 heterogeneous compute architecture, including the Qualcomm Kryo CPU, Qualcomm Adreno GPU, Qualcomm Hexagon DSP and Qualcomm AI Engine for high-performance VR applications like simple games, video streaming and productivity applications all running at low power consumption.

The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design demonstrates Qualcomm Technologies’ commitment to enabling customers and enriching lives to transform how the world connects and communicates.