T-Mobile, Qualcomm Build Snapdragon Content Ecosystem

Two leading tech firms have teamed up to build a global ecosystem for developing XR content

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T-Mobile, Qualcomm Partner for Snapdragon Content Ecosystem
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Published: November 12, 2021

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Rory Greener

US manufacturer of chipsets and wireless communications technology Qualcomm announced a partnership with telecoms firm T-Mobile to launch the “Snapdragon Spaces extended reality (XR) Developer Platform,” a software development kit (SDK) to support augmented reality (AR) content creation for Qualcomm hardware.

The openXR SDK gives AR developers the freedom to accelerate and refine the production cycle of consumer and enterprise-level immersive applications.

T-Mobile and Qualcomm will work closely with XR startups to encourage the development of platform experiences, namely 5G-enabled 3D applications for Qualcomm hardware such as the Snapdragon XR2 5G.

In a press release, Neville Ray, Technology President, T-Mobile said:

“AR glasses will make a real impact for both businesses and consumers, but first we need to build the ecosystem of developers that will bring new applications to life, and Snapdragon Spaces is a critical step in making this happen”

Behind T-Mobile’s Accelerator Programme

In April, T-Mobile launched its three-month-long Accelerator Spring Immersive Technology Programme which supported eight immersive technology startups by supplying essential resources and feedback from T-Mobile IT engineers and business leaders.

The startups included Condense Reality, Everysight, Flow Immersive, Kai XR, Longan Vision Corp, Matsuko, Multicasting.io, and Prisms of Reality.

Prisms of Reality is a leading eLearning VR solution using advanced 3D visualisations to assist STEM learners, and Anurupa Ganguly, Company Founder and CEO Anurupa Ganguly, explained to XR Today how T-Mobile helped the firm reach its eLearning goals.

She said that such collaborations in immersive tech for K-12 institutions required “strong partnerships between content platforms, hardware providers, and network operators.”

She continued, stating,

“Without T-Mobile’s support to forge critical relationships and set up early-adopting schools with next generation infrastructure, our launch across schools [during the COVID-19 pandemic], which required radical math learning tools the most, would have been impossible”

Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform

The news comes after Qualcomm designed the Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform as an SDK to facilitate the production of spatial computing and AR applications.

Furthermore, Snapdragon Spaces is an open ecosystem that supports the Khronos Group’s OpenXR standard to accelerate the delivery of portable XR applications.

The Snapdragon SDK also supports both Unity and Unreal game development engines, and the platform has further extensions to translate 2D applications into 3D immersive experiences as well as various features that enable seamless AR content creation such as:

  • Positional Tracking for detailed environmental mapping and placement of AR visualisations
  • Advanced Hand Tracking
  • Local Anchors and Persistence for the accurate placement of 3D objects in the real-world
  • Image Recognition and Tracking that scans real-world 2D images to launch AR content
  • Object Recognition and Tracking to create AR experiences based on real-world 3D objects
  • Smart horizontal and vertical Plane Detection
  • Spatial Mapping & Meshing that assists AR smart glasses in detecting depth in real-world physical geometry
  • High-quality AR Occlusion for decreased visualisation errors

At the moment, Snapdragon Space is only available as an early access programme for select developers, and the SDK will open in Spring next year.

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