Qualcomm teams up with Microsoft to create chips for AR glasses, metaverse apps

Taking a step towards the metaverse, Qualcomm has announced that it is working with Microsoft to create custom chips for lightweight augmented reality (AR) glasses that can be used by consumers and businesses for metaverse apps.

The announcement was made by Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon during a press conference at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Amon said that the plan is to make the custom chips work with the software the developers need to “create virtual worlds in which people can work and play”.

Amon added that the future devices that come out of this partnership between Qualcomm and Microsoft will work with a Microsoft software product called Mesh, which allows users to “beam a realistic likeness of themselves into the headset of another user so that it feels like the two people are in the same room”.

He added that the upcoming hardware made with the new chips will use a Qualcomm software called Snapdragon Spaces that “helps perform basic augmented reality functions like mapping out physical spaces so that digital objects can be overlaid on them and hand-tracking so that users can manipulate those digital objects with hand gestures”.

"We've been talking for years about the possibility of having wearable augmented reality devices that will gain scale," Amon said during the live-streamed talk on stage at CES. Qualcomm is one of the few major tech companies that has not cancelled its in-person participation at CES this year.

"Our goal is to inspire and empower others to collectively work to develop the metaverse future -- a future that is grounded in trust and innovation," Ruben Caballero, corporate vice president for mixed reality at Microsoft, said in a statement.

Neither Microsoft nor Qualcomm furnished any further details about when these new chips and the headsets might be available.

Also Read: CES 2022: Sony confirms plans for electric cars, unveils new Vision-S electric SUV

Also Read: CES 2022: Lenovo's new Smart Clock ditches Google Assistant for Amazon Alexa