Lightweight, functional augmented-reality eyewear may soon become a reality, now that Qualcomm has shown off its reference design for a pair of wireless AR glasses.
Qualcomm's new Wireless AR Smart Viewer reference design works the way we think Apple's upcoming AR glasses may function. The secret is "split rendering," which does the heavy lifting on a phone rather than in the glasses themselves to make the headset light enough to use comfortably. Until now, though, if you wanted to use glasses as a display rather than a processor, they generally had to be wired in to a phone or PC, and that's awkward.
AR developers haven't considered the wireless connections fast or reliable enough for consistent use. Qualcomm says its new FastConnect 6900 chipset gets over that bar.
A direct wireless connection, using Wi-Fi 6E for under 3ms latency, moves the processing down to a phone, letting the glasses be lighter and last longer.
Some rumors have Apple's glasses running their own full M-series processors, similar to Microsoft's HoloLens. That's been necessary for fully functioning AR glasses so far, unless they tether up to a phone or PC with an unsightly cable. But running processing directly on a headset makes it heavier, with shorter battery life, than it could otherwise be.
While Apple would not take on Qualcomm's design, the company generally creates popular products when the technologies become available. And Qualcomm's design shows that lightweight glasses are closer to reality than ever.
There's no word on who's picking up Qualcomm's reference design for a final product, but Apple likely won't crowd Qualcomm out of the market. Qualcomm's existing AR designs have been popular in enterprise and industrial applications, such as with the Lenovo ThinkReality A3 glasses, and Apple's product is more likely to be consumer-focused.