Qualcomm’s Wireless AR Smart Viewer design features the Snapdragon XR2

Qualcomm has released a reference design for a new Wireless AR Smart Viewer powered by its Snapdragon XR2 mixed reality platform. 

The reference design will make it easier for OEMs and ODMs to prototype lightweight, premium AR glasses to support the transition into the metaverse. 

The reference design showcases a glass hardware design with a 40% thinner profile and a more ergonomically balanced weight distribution, when compared with the AR Smart Viewer that was powered by the previous Snapdragon XR1 platform. This means the glasses are smaller and more comfortable than past designs. 

On the glasses is a dual micro-OLED binocular display provided by SeeYA. The displays have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 per eye and support frame rates of up to 90Hz. There’s also a no-motion-blur feature built into the Smart Viewer for a seamless AR viewing experience. 

The design includes dual monochrome cameras and one RGB camera for six degrees of freedom – or 6DoF – head tracking and hand tracking, along with gesture recognition. 

The cord-free design means that users can connect their smartphone, Windows PC or processing puck to the glasses wirelessly for a “virtually lag-free” AR experience with a latency of less than 3ms. 

There’s fast Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth connectivity on board thanks to Qualcomm’s FastConnect 6900 solution, while the FastConnect XR Software Suite allows for better control and preference channel access for XR traffic, improving motion-to-render-to-photon latency, reducing jitty and limiting unwanted interference. 

The suite also supports purpose-built power modes for low power operation without negatively impacting the latency. 

The Wireless AR Smart Viewer design is available now for select partners, though the availability is set to widen in the coming months, meaning we could see mixed reality glasses based on this reference design unveiled in the near future.