Qualcomm’s has launched its newest processor for good glasses, and although it is a modest improve over the previous chip, it has a brand new trick. The Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 can run AI instantly on units without having for a smartphone or cloud connection, permitting customers to exit or do chores with solely their good glasses, the corporate claims. The chip may seem in next-gen AR glasses from the likes of Meta and XReal.
Sensible glasses typically require giant temple arms to accommodate chips and different elements, however the AR1+ Gen 1 is 28 p.c smaller than the the AR1 Gen 1, so it permits for a 20 p.c temple top discount. On the identical time, it requires much less energy throughout key use instances together with laptop imaginative and prescient, wake with voice, Bluetooth playback and video streaming. Qualcomm additionally guarantees “premium” picture high quality by way of applied sciences like binocular show assist, picture stabilization and an enormous multi-frame engine.
The important thing characteristic, although, is the on-glass AI powered by Qualcomm’s Third-gen Hexagon NPU, with 1 billion small language mannequin (SLM) parameters on-glass. That permits it to run AI assistants that use SLMs like Llama 1B, with customers talking instructions and seeing the outcomes displayed on the glasses as textual content.
“Whereas on stage, I used to be on the ‘grocery store’ and requested my glasses for assist with fettuccine alfredo I wanted to make for my daughter’s birthday celebration,” wrote Qualcomm SVP of XR Ziad Asghar. “This demonstration was a world’s first: an Autoregressive Generative AI mannequin working fully on a pair of good glasses.”
Qualcomm shouted out Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses in addition to its chunky Orion AR glasses prototype as examples of the place good glass know-how is heading. It then added that tech like its Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 chip will allow “sleeker type components that don’t compromise on the flexibility to run AI fashions.” Studying between the traces, you possibly can anticipate the chip to look in ever-slimmer standalone AI-powered good glasses within the close to future.
