Many attempts at making smart glasses were done over the years but none made any lasting impact. Now, the latest news in that space is that Niantic will be partnering with Qualcomm for a new one. Hey, maybe we'd get to play Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite with this?
The smart glass is set to come with Qualcomm's new ARVR Snapdragon XR2 chip, which was revealed on the same day as the Snapdragon 865 and 765 chipsets. With the new chip as the core, Qualcomm has created a reference design smart glasses, which other companies like Niantic can make use of. The company's aim is to make AR headsets that are more accessible to consumers.
In terms of features and tech specs, there were quite a few interesting things to take note of. Besides the performance gains over the Snapdragon 835 chipset, the reference design will support 4K resolution at 120FPS, HDR support, has seven concurrent cameras and more. From what we've heard of so far, the new smart glass sounds like it will be a very impressive piece of technology.
As for Niantic's part in the venture, CTO Phil Keslin confirmed that Niantic "has entered into a multi-year collaboration with Qualcomm to create a new category of augmented reality glasses aimed at consumers." That doesn't tell us much, but we think it means Niantic will provide the software (Real World Platform), while Qualcomm provides the hardware (new reference design). Whether there will be any active co-development was not confirmed.
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