What They Say
Protocol interviewed Qualcomm’s GM of XR Hugo Swart who set out these four ‘roads to mass-market’ adoption:
- VR headsets with video pass-through: Facebook’s Quest already offers a rudimentary version of this, allowing users to see a grainy version of the real world in VR. That image quality is going to get better, and deliver high-fidelity video for immersive AR — but you won’t be wearing these headsets on the street. “We will have really cool experiences, but it will be indoors,” Swart said.
- Enterprise headsets like Microsoft’s HoloLens: These devices are still far too bulky for the average consumer, but that’s likely going to change over time. “Even for enterprise, you need to make them lighter,” Swart told Protocol.
- Smart glasses: Glasses like the Snap’s early Spectacles, Bose’s audio sunglasses or Facebook’s upcoming collaboration with Ray-Ban don’t offer true AR immersion, but they do foreshadow where things are going. “It’s a first step in that direction,” Swart said.
- Wireless viewers: Wearables like Nreal’s smart glasses have been striking a compromise between immersion and comfort by outsourcing compute to phones or dedicated processing units. Future iterations could use Wi-Fi 6E to connect wirelessly to phones or PCs, or tap directly into the cloud via 5G. “Within the next couple of years, we will see a lot of progress” on this front, Swart predicted.
Swart told the blog that one day, everyone on the planet would have a device.
What We Think
Hmmm…. not a great deal of surprise in these comments, but it’s pleasing that we don’t seem to have missed anything! (BR)
This roadmap was shown by Qualcomm last year at AWE
