A full house of guests talking about the future | Interview with Hugo Swart, Vice President of Product Management and Head of XR Business at Qualcomm

Vice President of Product Management, Qualcomm

XR Business Manager Hugo Swart

Si Hongguo: Qualcomm has always been committed to promoting the development of the global XR industry, which can be summarized as "four major strategies". First, we provide the best chipsets for XR devices, that is, through high-performance, low-power integrated platform solutions to support top XR experiences. It is worth mentioning that we have currently launched the industry's best XR SoC, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 and XR2 platforms. There are currently more than 30 XR devices using the Snapdragon platform on the market in the world, including products from many Chinese companies, such as 3Glasses, Dapeng VR, iQiyi Smart, Nreal, Pico, RealMax, Realwell, Rokid, Shadow Creation Technology, ThirdEye, Xiaomi and Suiguang.

Secondly, we provide relevant software support, such as perception algorithms such as six degrees of freedom (6DoF) and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for creating XR experiences, optimizations for display and GPU, and optimizations for power consumption and performance.

In addition, there is the Qualcomm XR reference design, which is also part of the HMD Accelerator Program (HAP). We selected hardware components from some suppliers and built them into reference designs together with our technology. For customers, this is a set of guidance to help them accelerate product commercialization.

Finally, cooperation with the entire XR ecosystem is the most important part of the four major strategies. For example, through the Qualcomm XR Glasses Adaptation Program, we can test the performance of the XR Viewer and confirm its compatibility with smartphones to ensure that users can enjoy a seamless experience. Through the Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program (XEP), we can work with different solution providers who are not only familiar with how to apply technology to hardware, but can also provide companies with solutions for specific problems, such as training, design and collaboration, remote assistance or guidance, and cooperation with global ecosystem platforms.

Si Hongguo: Currently, the XR experience is constantly improving, which is very similar to the development of smartphones. In the past few years, the XR industry has made a lot of progress, and we expect XR to continue to evolve in the next decade. For example, head-mounted display devices will become smaller, lighter and have longer battery life, which is crucial to promoting the popularity of XR devices in the consumer market.

Qualcomm is promoting the development of XR through the "Four Strategies". We believe that system-level solutions in chip design, software and reference design can help solve these pain points. Our heterogeneous computing architecture is designed and optimized for creating more energy-efficient and smaller terminals, which can help reduce the size of head-mounted display devices while integrating more technology in a smaller chip footprint.

In addition, cost is another pain point faced by many new products, but with the large-scale deployment of XR technology, costs will continue to fall. We also maintain close cooperation with companies in the hardware ecosystem, hoping to further reduce costs. At present, AR and VR devices are benefiting from the advanced components and technologies integrated in smartphones, and their market prices are also showing a downward trend year by year, especially in regions such as China.

Si Hongguo: 5G is seen as a transformative technology that drives the development of XR. At the enterprise level, many manufacturers and engineering companies are considering building 5G enterprise private networks. Thanks to the lower latency and high throughput supported by 5G, 5G can also make Qualcomm's pioneering "Boundless XR" a reality in AR/VR devices equipped with 5G modems. Boundless XR achieved using 5G means that part of the load of the XR device can be processed on the terminal side and rely on edge computers in the local network to handle heavier computing tasks. This will meet the needs of some 3D design and enterprise-level users for more complex and realistic graphics rendering.

At the consumer level, we believe that XR Viewer will be able to quickly unleash the potential of 5G. Not long ago, Qualcomm announced that it would join forces with more than 15 operators around the world to jointly create XR Viewers that are lightweight and can be connected to 5G smartphones equipped with Snapdragon 855 or 865 mobile platforms. Among them, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are also among them. These XR Viewer products will be delivered to different markets within the next year. The high bandwidth and low latency provided by 5G smartphones are crucial to creating a high-quality XR experience, and it will help XR Viewers start a new round of immersive experience.

In addition, we have launched the Qualcomm XR Glasses Adaptation Program for smartphone and viewer OEMs, which aims to ensure the interoperability and excellent experience of XR Viewers. With the coordinated development of XR and 5G, a series of unprecedented experiences will emerge. Imagine that consumers' favorite smartphone applications will be presented to them in the form of AR, and in another dimension, we can even realize holographic remote meetings through virtual collaboration platforms, which will completely change the form of corporate office meetings.

Si Hongguo: With the release of the Snapdragon XR2 platform and the Snapdragon XR2 reference design, we hope to deliver the best end-to-end XR solution that integrates hardware, software, reference platform, platform API, and ecosystem support to support the continued innovation of existing and new partners and create a new generation of AR, VR, and MR experiences and devices. When we launched the Snapdragon XR2 platform in December last year, we announced that more than 5 customers were using the platform for prototyping and development. We expect the second half of 2020 to be exciting, and we look forward to seeing a number of devices equipped with Snapdragon XR2 available this year and in the future.

Hongguo Si: The concept of long-term investment in breakthrough technologies and driving industry change has long been embedded in Qualcomm's DNA. At the same time, we also believe that XR is the next generation of mobile computing platform. Our long-term vision is that in the next decade, we will be able to evolve from handheld devices (such as smartphones) to head-mounted devices that people can use all day or portable AR glasses.

XR will be as ubiquitous as today's smartphones, not only able to stay "always online", but may even replace all display screens and personal computing devices, including computers, TVs, and game consoles. Of course, the high speed and low latency brought by 5G are essential to support the above experience.