Is augmented reality (AR) on the verge of mass-adoption? While AR is still mostly used through mobile experiences, we look at the driving forces of new technology adoption, and how they apply to headworn AR. AR glasses form factors are getting closer to consumer expectations, applications are easier to produce, user interfaces and interaction models are becoming standardized, and foundational technologies blend together as a solid basis for near-term breakthrough. 

It seems like AR is a nascent technology, but it’s been around for awhile — just under the radar. The first AR headset was created in 1968 by a Harvard professor, and the term was coined in 1990 by a Boeing researcher to describe the head-mounted displays electricians used on complex mechanical assembly projects. 

The potential for the mass adoption of AR became apparent after Niantic released the smartphone-based Pokémon Go game that gathered more than 270 million active users. At its peak, it was not uncommon to see larger groups of people out and about around popular points of interest trying to catch an elusive Pokémon to add to their collection. The growing trend toward mainstream AR was taking root. 

Why now? An inflection point for augmented reality

Remember the pre-smartphone (feature phone) era? Mobile phones were equipped with all sorts of shapes and features, as well as various features like sliding keyboards, foldable designs, circular control panels, and more. In 2010, 70 percent of Americans owned a feature phone — fast forward to 2020 and that number has dropped to 2 percent with 85 percent of Americans now owning a smartphone. 

There are a couple of factors that help drive the adoption of a new technology: a standardized form factor, availability and accessibility of content, a homogenous user experience, and the convergence of foundational technologies. Let’s dig into how we are seeing this same trend play out for augmented reality. 

Unified form factor

“Form factor” is the engineering jargon that describes the physical size, shape, and arrangements of an electronic component, or piece of hardware; e.g., a car’s chassis, a phone, or a chipset. Once the form factor of a certain hardware is standardized, its adoption can be accelerated. 

When the phone form factor evolved to a rectangular, all-in-one touchscreen with high resolution camera, GPS and fast data connectivity, the smartphone became mainstream. In the same way that different technologies converged into a touchscreen phone that fit in a pocket, we believe AR glasses will be adopted once they look similar to everyday glasses or sunglasses and provide relevant information to the wearer — eliminating the need to pull out your smartphone. Is there an engineering challenge here? For sure, but it’s not impossible to solve. 

Enter Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 Platform

During our 2022 Snapdragon Summit in November, we announced our new Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 platform. Built from the ground up, Snapdragon AR2 is designed to power sleeker and more stylish AR glasses, moving the industry closer to the future mass-scale AR glasses the market will adopt. 

Interestingly, hardware is only one part of the equation. Think of how many apps you currently use on your phone. How many tools do you use to work, play, and socialize? On average, Americans have 80 apps on their smartphone. 

Content and tools

The need for high-quality content goes hand-in-hand with a standardized form factor: without content, the hardware is an empty shell. While some popular smartphone apps integrate AR as a feature into a traditional mobile app — think face filters or virtual effects — the ecosystem lacks the structures and tools for developers to create headworn AR apps. 

To enable creators to develop the next popular AR apps, we created the Snapdragon Spaces XR developer platform. Snapdragon Spaces provides a series of tools for developers to create immersive content for AR, VR and MR devices, and a community for developers to share and collaborate their ideas. Snapdragon Spaces was designed on open standards and is flexible enough to incorporate the frameworks and tools that other developers have deployed. 

For example, Niantic has been building a 3D map of the world with their Lightship VPS — enabling developers to locate the AR user and layer digital content more precisely in space. Lightship VPS is a tool that is transparent for the end-user, but levels up your experience of the metaverse. By enabling Lightship VPS with Snapdragon Spaces, developers will create outdoor, headworn AR games that will localize the user accurately in space, and render digital content with centimeter-level precision.

Homogenous user interface and interaction standards

To adopt a new technology at scale, consumers at large must be able to easily interact with the hardware, regardless of the device’s brand, manufacturer, or operating system. A homogeneous user interface means that a user can move from device to device, across different brands, and understand the basics of navigation and interaction. For example, the way we interact with cars is similar no matter what their brands are, and this is the same for computers and smartphones.

AR will be widely adopted when almost anyone who slips on a set of AR glasses will intuitively know how to interact with digital spatial content. The equivalent of smartphone interactions like swipe, scroll, and tap will have to become ubiquitous across different AR devices and interfaces.

Many XR companies have collaborated over the past few years to push forward interoperability. For example, we are supporting Open XR, an open standard that enables developers to make code that is compatible with most XR devices and OS. Microsoft, with whom we collaborate closely on AR projects, provides a set of tools — the MRTK — for developers to build UI elements into XR devices. 

Convergence of foundational technologies

Technology is complex and interconnected. Each foundational technology — e.g., artificial intelligence (AI), Wi-Fi, 5G, and semiconductors — leverages the capabilities of another to perform better as a whole. 

For example, the connectivity capabilities of the Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1, coupled with better AI, enable the platform to power wire-free headworn AR experiences that include audio, sound, movement, and interactions while maintaining low thermals. 

Better AI and faster connectivity alone don’t make the AR glasses experience what consumers expect. The way chipsets are designed represents a major driver of AR glasses shape, weight, and size. For this reason, we are bringing to market platforms that are increasingly thinner and more innovative. For example, the Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 breaks from the traditional single chip architecture of many smart devices, and instead utilizes a unique multi-chip architecture that allows the processing and connectivity components to be spread around the glasses and the phone to help reduce complexity and size, as well as improve the dissipation of heat.

What’s next? 

The Snapdragon AR2 platform unlocks a whole new potential for augmented reality, powering AR glasses that allow users to experience a more enjoyable, fun, and exciting world where the intersection between the real and the digital are unnoticeable. For example, Niantic just unveiled their reference design powered by Snapdragon AR2, along with demos of what the future of augmented reality looks like: re-discovering the world with your friends while having fun.