Recently announced mobile platform Snapdragon XR2, Qualcomm showed impressively ambitious partner for its latest developments in mixed reality: the software giant augmented reality Niantic. The developer of a multibillion-dollar hit Pokémon Go and popular collaboration of Warner Bros. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has said it will cooperate with the chip maker for the development of AR glasses, the software and cloud components.
Despite the fact that details on the partnership are still a little, the deal will combine hardware and software Qualcomm XR2 platform Niantic Real World to provide the best AR game on a world scale, which will benefit millions of users simultaneously igrayuschih. Although the images for the platform is not yet available, it is easy to imagine that people with glasses Niantic roam public places in pursuit of pokemon, and not do it with their smartphones.
Niantic had previously expressed interest in AR-points, but the transition to the still challenging consumer market AR equipment is bold for a software company. Five years ago, any developer struggling trying to create their own AR goggles, and even today, no consumer AR headset has not reached mass popularity. On the other hand, Niantic is the only big company that is building a sustainable business that is entirely based on games, augmented reality, and almost single-handedly supports the consumer interest in AR technology, which at best remain nascent, and useless at worst.
Meanwhile, the team XR Qualcomm lays the groundwork for such deals. In September, the chip maker said that developers can use the chip that samples the reference equipment, software and established relationships with suppliers to become suppliers of platforms, mixed reality in just four months, if they start work. Niantic has not offered a timetable for its own proposal, but described the deal as a long-term cooperation, suggesting that its glasses will be not so fast.
Thanks to its considerable experience in the development of AR, Niantic in the past year, thought about more, creating your own program Creator Program and Beyond Reality Fund to attract projects and locations AR to their platform Niantic Real World, used for development of augmented reality to help third-party developers to accelerate the development of radar games. According to Niantic, access equipment Qualcomm-Niantic will be included in the program Creator “when will it be available”, and interested developers can register at niantic.dev.
Niantic co-founder and technical Director Phil Keslin (Phil Keslin) said that the company hopes to help “push the entire industry forward AR because we are working together with Qualcomm Technologies to determine the true end — to-end architecture including hardware, software, and cloud computing.”
