Qualcomm has enabled what one in all its executives mentioned was a wierd and “most fascinating conversations– and it was with a pair of generative AI-powered sensible glasses.”
In a chat at Augmented World Expo, Ziad Asghar, senior vp of XR & spatial computing at Qualcomm, mentioned that the chat wasn’t only a easy demo. It was a glimpse into how we’re turning AI glasses, which have lengthy been thought of an adjunct, right into a standalone, complete succesful gadget.
The corporate additionally unveiled its Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 processor, which is 26% smaller than the earlier generations, to energy the demo.
“On Tuesday, as I stood on stage at AWE USA, the world’s largest XR convention, I chatted with an AI assistant by means of a pair of RayNeo X3 Professional sensible glasses powered by Snapdragon know-how, – with AI inferencing carried out on the glasses with out counting on the cloud or an web connection,” mentioned Ziad Asghar, senior vp of XR & spatial computing at Qualcomm, in a press release.
He mentioned the premise is easy: AI glasses are set to function independently while not having to be paired with a smartphone or the cloud.
“Within the close to future, I will go away my telephone in my pocket or within the automobile and simply put on my sensible glasses throughout a grocery store run, as I confirmed off throughout my AWE demo,” Asghar mentioned. “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 celebration.”
In response, the AI assistant, operating Llama 1B, a small language mannequin (SLM), understood the particular request and offered him with the data he wanted by means of audio and textual content displayed within the lens of his glasses.
This demonstration was a world’s first: an Autoregressive Generative AI mannequin operating utterly on a pair of sensible glasses. No telephone. No cloud. Simply the processor powering the glasses themselves. And this trade milestone was pulled off in entrance of a reside viewers, he mentioned.
Topping this off was the announcement of our Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 processor, which is 26% smaller than the earlier generations and brings enhanced picture high quality, measurement, energy enchancment and the power to run SLMs. All 4 of those traits are important for compact sensible glasses.
Collectively, they open the door to a revolution in AI sensible glasses, with thinner, lighter and extra different glass designs paired with sufficient energy to run AI assistants proper on the gadget.
So, whereas the demo was only one instance of what you are able to do with utterly on-device AI on sensible glasses, the advantages that stem from the work occurring at Qualcomm, are long-lasting and big.
Broaden and evolve
There isn’t one path that XR headsets and sensible glasses will take, particularly since we additionally provide blended actuality processors comparable to Snapdragon XR2 and Snapdragon XR2+ that even have vital inferencing functionality on the gadget.
Asghar mentioned he anticipates a number of totally different kind elements, from standalone glasses highly effective sufficient to run AI fashions themselves, to extra light-weight frames linked to telephones or close by small computing “pucks” that may hyperlink something from a automobile to a pill. What Qualcomm is doing with the portfolio is preparing for the longer term.
Whether or not it’s cloud computing, on-device, or a hybrid path that includes each, the increase in on-device AI capabilities will provide a seamless and ultra-low latency person expertise that’s additionally security-focused. That might be important as AI-powered sensible glasses discover their method into sectors with mission-critical wants and customers demand extra personalization, extra privateness options, and an end-to-end agentic expertise.
“We’ve already seen vital momentum within the XR trade during the last yr. In December, we collaborated with Google and Samsung to launch Android XR, an working system designed with AI on the core of the XR expertise,” he mentioned.
This comes because the trade continues to develop, with Meta’s Ray-Ban Glasses, in addition to extra bold {hardware} comparable to Meta Orion, which it payments as the corporate’s first true augmented actuality glasses with their very own digital overlay.
As well as, Asghar mentioned we’ve seen glasses from Rokid, RayNeo, XREAL and extra. In March, BleeqUp launched a pair of AI-powered sports activities glasses.
Think about what these firms will be capable to accomplish with smaller, extra highly effective platforms like Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1, enabling sleeker kind elements that don’t compromise on the power to run AI fashions, Asghar mentioned.
Smarter, extra conscious
Whereas getting sensible glasses right down to an affordable measurement and match is important, one other advance that Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 brings is digicam capabilities usually present in premium smartphones, which is equally necessary to the place they’re evolving.
That skill to see the world that you just see – with each minute element – will open new avenues of multimodal inputs. That functionality is important for AI to not solely higher perceive what you see, but in addition join the dots in a method that lets it proactively provide ideas or extra context on an object or location.
And whereas sensible glasses will be capable to run SLMs on their very own, that doesn’t imply they received’t work in tandem with a constellation of units round you, whether or not it’s your smartphone or PC. In truth, I see sensible watches and new units comparable to sensible rings or different wearable sensors that may allow new modalities of enter as they work in live performance together with your glasses.
At Qualcomm Applied sciences, we’re getting ready for a multifaceted future with a variety of gadget combos by making a modular structure that permits our companions to faucet into the spatial computing trade to ship a superior expertise to customers.
That’s why I do know this dialog with my sensible glasses’ AI assistant is such a pivotal second – it actually marked the start of one thing enormous. The work we’re doing is simply beginning to unlock the game-changing potential of a deeper and extra customized agentic expertise.
“A world’s first on-glass Gen AI demonstration: Qualcomm’s imaginative and prescient for the way forward for sensible glasses,” mentioned Qualcomm. “Our reside demonstration of a generative AI assistant operating utterly on sensible glasses – with out assistance from a telephone or the cloud — and the reveal of the brand new Snapdragon AR1+ platform spark new potentialities for augmented actuality.”
