Introducing Snapdragon Spaces
Snapdragon Spaces is an open mixed-reality (XR) platform for developing AR software using Qualcomm’s mobile hardware technologies. The Santa Clara-based firm launched the solution in November last year, which is currently in its early access stage, and was scheduled for general availability in the Spring of 2022.
How Does Snapdragon Spaces Work?
It provides basic AR features by allowing organizations to produce apps quickly without having to develop the technology themselves. Developers gained early access to Snapdragon Spaces late last year, and the platform will officially launch this spring. Leading companies like Epic Games, Lenovo, and Oppo have already partners.
Snapdragon Spaces provides the resources to bring developers’ ideas to life via head-worn AR with an accessible, cross-device framework and an ecosystem of tools. The platform allows you to create 3D programs for AR glasses connected to and powered by smartphones. Users can connect AR-native or conventional Android apps, but it is built to work on mobile hardware.
Key Features of Snapdragon Spaces
Snapdragon Spaces equips developers with the following tools:
1. Locational tracking – Positional tracking accurately maps the environment and estimates the AR glasses’ location, position, and orientation inside three-dimensional space. This allows a developer to determine and monitor the position of the end-user in relation to the rest of the globe. AR content will render accurately in the scene based on the end user’s location, head position, and orientation, giving the impression that the AR content is part of the real world.
2. Image recognition – The feature makes it possible to access related AR content via content in the developer’s app, or it can be hosted in the Snapdragon Spaces Cloud.
3. Object detection – Developers can recognize and track 3D objects with computer-aided design (CAD) metadata or 3D objects that have been launched before. Objects can overlay 3D content on top of the object for automatic tracking during user movement.
4. Local anchors and persistence – This feature overlays 3D content in spaces at a specific location on an auto-generated map. The object will persist both locally and in application sessions so that users can pick up where they left off.
5. Plane detection – Plane detection allows developers and users to recognize horizontal and vertical surfaces in physical environments to link their AR content to certain surfaces such as walls, floors, and tables.
6. Occlusion – This feature is useful in scenarios where AR content is blocked by physical items in the end user’s AR field of view (FoV). Occlusion uses spatial mapping and meshing to enable AR experiences that mimic obstructions by recreating the geometry of physical spaces.
7. Hand tracking – Hand tracking allows for the detection, tracking, and meshing of a user’s hands when engaging with AR, allowing for more natural, intuitive, rapid, and precise input without the use of physical devices or controllers.
8. Scene understanding – This feature provides semantic knowledge about parts of physical spaces to the AR glasses. Snapdragon Spaces aids in the semantic interpretation of a scene’s floors, walls, and ceilings, resulting in seamless AR experiences.
More About the Snapdragon Spaces Pathfinder Program
Snapdragon Spaces gives developers the ability to blur the lines between physical and digital realities to alter surroundings in ways only our imagination can envision.
In response, Qualcomm launched its Snapdragon Spaces Pathfinder Program in November 2021 to assist AR designers by supplying hardware development kits, project funding, co-marketing, and promotion.
Developers interested in working on AR are encouraged to apply to the program through the Snapdragon Spaces page.
Benefits of Snapdragon Spaces for Developers
Snapdragon Spaces is focused on reducing the friction involved in app development and monetization by offering several benefits such as:
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Open platform support – Snapdragon Spaces lowers developer friction by delivering device-agnostic AR functionalities. The platform allows developers to create 3D AR smart glass programs from the ground up or add head-mounted AR elements to existing Android smartphone apps, resulting in a cohesive, multiscreen experience that spans the smartphone screen in 2D and the real environment in 3D.
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Access to proven technologies – Snapdragon Spaces is based on cutting-edge and well-established machine-learning technologies that work thanks to decades of research from Qualcomm Technologies. Snapdragon Spaces has a track record of generating AR experiences that recognize and intelligently interact with the physical environment as well as users.
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Breaking down the barriers to resources – To help bring ideas to life, the Pathfinder program has offered early access to Snapdragon Spaces technology, project financing, hardware dev kits, co-marketing, and promotional materials to welcomes developers from around the world to create unique AR applications.
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Network with like minds – Working with Qualcomm Technologies provides developers with access to a community of like-minded developers and partners to brainstorm on fresh ideas for the market.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces project is bound to aid developers and device manufacturers in bringing interoperable AR to market more quickly and today, the platform is providing developers with an AR toolset to use with apps under development along with familiar ecosystems.
