Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon Spaces Augmented Reality Developer Platform

Qualcomm has announced the launch of Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, which it says will make it considerably easier to build experiences for head-worn augmented reality systems.

"Snapdragon Spaces is something different for Qualcomm," Hugo Swart, Qualcomm's vice president and general manager for XR, explains of the company's announcement. "Snapdragon Spaces is a developer platform for augmented reality head-worn devices. As you know, Qualcomm typically has provided our technology, our chips and reference designs and so forth, to the hardware ecosystem. Now, we go directly to developers."

Designed to adhere to the Khronos OpenXR specification, guaranteeing portability for any applications built on the platform providing it passes testing as Qualcomm expects, Snapdragon Spaces offers nine key features designed to increase flexibility and the quality of the augmented reality experience: Hand and gesture tracking; object recognition and tracking; positional tracking; image recognition and tracking; occlusion, allowing virtual and real objects to pass behind and in front of each other; local anchor points with persistence; scene understanding; plane detection, allowing virtual objects to sit realistically on surfaces including tables and floors; and spatial mapping and meshing.

While the platform supports building dedicated augmented reality applications from scratch, Qualcomm is also looking at giving existing app developers a head-start in the field.

"With Snapdragon spaces the idea here is that, instead of building 3d applications from for AR glasses from scratch, developers can now simply add head-worn AR features to existing Android smartphone applications," Swart explains. "We believe that this is going to be a low hanging fruit, a low barrier for existing developers to start to experiment and to start offering head-worn AR solutions without having a massive investment."

At the same time, Qualcomm confirmed its Pathfinder Program in which it will offer select Snapdragon Spaces developers early access to platform technology, including hardware development kits, co-marketing and promotion opportunities, and even project funding. "We will be accepting applications for participating in the program," Swart says, "and we'll be looking at fitness, tabletop gaming, and enterprise, and way more types of applications, for this first phase."

Qualcomm has announced a number of industry partners on the platform, including Epic, Unity, Niantic, Lenovo, Motorola, Oppo, ViacomCBS, and more. Additional details are available on the Qualcomm website, where the company has opened the Pathfinders program and early adopter access with a view towards general availability in Spring 2022.