Qualcomm S5 and S3 Gen 2 Sound Platforms and Snapdragon AR2 Designed to Revolutionize AR Glasses
During Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. today announced the Company’s most advanced Bluetooth® audio platforms to date– the Qualcomm® S5 Gen 2 Sound Platform and Qualcomm® S3 Gen 2 Sound Platform with support for Snapdragon Sound™ technology. Optimized to work with the latest Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, these feature-rich, ultra-lower power platforms add new features to Snapdragon Sound including spatial audio with dynamic head-tracking, improved lossless music streaming, and 48ms latency between phone and earbud for lag-free gaming.
“The next-generation Qualcomm S5 and S3 platforms have been designed to deliver the rich features that consumers want most, while also delivering ultra-low power performance. We were first to deliver Lossless audio over Bluetooth and since then, we’ve continued to innovate,” said James Chapman, vice president and general manager, Voice, Music & Wearables, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. “We know from our 2022 State of Sound consumer research that more than half of consumers say they will be seeking out support for spatial audio on their next set of wireless earbuds. I’m excited to say we are bringing support for spatial audio with dynamic head-tracking to Snapdragon Sound technologies, lossless audio for the new Bluetooth LE Audio specification, and even lower latency on our latest platforms.”
The platforms also support third generation Qualcomm® Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, which improves the listener experience by adapting to both in-ear fit and the user’s external environment. This Qualcomm Adaptive ANC also includes our Adaptive Transparency mode with automatic speech detection, to support smooth transitions between immersive noise cancelling and natural sounding leak-through when a listener needs to hear the world around them. For audio device developers, enhanced ANC technology helps solve commonly faced issues such as wind noise, howling and adverse events.
“Our State of Sound survey this year also highlighted growing consumer interest in Bluetooth LE Audio, with over a third of respondents interested in new user experiences like Auracast™ broadcast audio. We have worked closely with the Bluetooth SIG to ensure these new platforms are fully qualified to support this use case,” added Chapman.
The Qualcomm S5 and S3 Gen 2 Sound Platforms are now sampling to customers with commercial products expected in 2nd half of 2023.
During Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. revealed the Snapdragon® AR2 Gen 1 Platform, which delivers groundbreaking AR technology that will unlock a new generation of sleek, highly capable glasses. The Company built Snapdragon AR2 from the ground up to revolutionize the headworn glass form factor and usher in a new era of spatial computing experiences for the real-world/metaverse mix.
Purpose-built for AR: To help create the thinnest possible, high-performance AR glass, we have built a multi-chip distributed processing architecture combined with customized IP blocks. The main processor occupies a 40% smaller2 PCB area on glass and the overall platform delivers 2.5x better AI performance while consuming 50% less power to help achieve AR glasses that consume <1W power. This enables rich AR experiences on glasses that can be comfortably worn for extended periods of time and meet the demands of both consumers and enterprise use cases.
AR Distributed Processing Architecture: To better balance the weight and decrease the arm width on either side of the glasses, Snapdragon AR2 uses a multi-chip architecture that includes an AR processor, AR co-processor and connectivity platform. Snapdragon AR2 dynamically works to distribute the processing of latency-sensitive perception data directly on the glasses and offloads more complex data processing requirements to a Snapdragon-powered smartphone, PC or to other compatible host devices3.
- The AR processor is optimized for low motion-to-photon latency while supporting up to nine (9) concurrent cameras for user and environmental understanding. Its enhanced perception capabilities include a dedicated hardware acceleration engine that improves user motion tracking and localization, an AI accelerator to reduce latency for sensitive input interactions such as hand tracking or 6DoF, and a reprojection engine for a smoother experience.
- The AR co-processor aggregates camera and sensor data and enables eye tracking and iris authentication for foveated rendering, to optimize workloads only where the user is looking. This helps reduce power consumption.
- The connectivity platform utilizes Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 7800 connectivity system to unlock the world’s fastest Wi-Fi 7 technology available and reaches <2ms latency between the AR glasses and the smartphone or host device. Embedded support for the FastConnect XR Software Suite 2.0 enables better control of XR data to improve latency, reduce jitter and avoid unwanted interference.
AR Ecosystem: Beyond the transformative Snapdragon AR2 technology, it is critical to deliver an end-to-end solution consisting of hardware, a suite of perception technologies, and the software tools to build immersive experiences. To allow developers to build incredible headworn AR applications, Snapdragon AR2 and the Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Platform are optimized to be Snapdragon Spaces Ready. The Snapdragon Spaces™ XR Developer Platform is designed to be the foundation that will pave the way for developers to reimagine headworn AR content and help propel the entire AR glass segment.
“We built Snapdragon AR2 to address the unique challenges of headworn AR and provide industry-leading processing, AI and connectivity that can fit inside a stylish form factor,” said Hugo Swart, vice president of XR product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “With the technical and physical requirements for VR/MR and AR diverging, Snapdragon AR2 represents another metaverse-defining platform in our XR portfolio to help our OEM partners revolutionize AR glasses.”
“Microsoft worked closely with Qualcomm on the platform requirements for Snapdragon AR2 to help define the purpose-built, foundational technologies to unlock new possibilities in AR experiences,” said Rubén Caballero, Corporate Vice President of Mixed Reality, Devices & Technology, Microsoft. “Snapdragon AR2 platform innovations will revolutionize headworn AR devices that will transform immersive productivity and collaboration and we look forward to seeing the innovation that Qualcomm and its partners will bring to market.”
For more information, please visit the product webpage. Livestream replays will also be available at Snapdragon Summit Event hub.
