Vuzix today debuted its M400 enterprise smart glasses, which use the newly unveiled Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 platform.
The smart glasses are one of the first products using the XR1, and they’re on display at the Mobile World Congress event taking place this week in Barcelona.
The two companies have been collaborating since May 2018.
“Snapdragon XR1 is the first dedicated XR platform from Qualcomm Technologies targeted to the class of devices that Vuzix has mastered. Vuzix’ focus on wearability, experience, and form factor combined with XR1 will drive smart glasses to the next level,” said Hugo Swart, head of XR at Qualcomm, in a statement. “Qualcomm Technologies is a strong believer in the smart glasses segment for the enterprise. We look forward to seeing our collaboration with Vuzix help scale adoption in enterprises and become a mainstream device to help increase employee productivity in the new era of AI and immersive computing.”
Above: Vuzix is targeting the enterprise market with its M400 smart glasses.
The platform integrates Qualcomm Technologies’ heterogeneous computing architecture and includes an Arm-based multicore central processing unit (CPU), vector processor, graphics processing unit (GPU), and Qualcomm AI Engine.
The Snapdragon XR1 can do power-efficient on-device processing of vision-based machine learning algorithms that can help with augmented reality (AR) uses like pose prediction and object classification.
Rochester, New York-based Vuzix designed it to deliver an immersive user interface (UI) experience, with features such as native voice processing, motion tracking, head tracking, and more.
Above: Vuzix is targeting the M400 at applications such as medical or dental work.
The new product, currently referred to as the Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses, is expected to enter volume production in summer 2019. Further details and pricing will be announced this spring, along with an early engagement program for select developers and customers. The product will be physically, mechanically, and (for most software) 100 percent compatible with Vuzix’ existing M-Series products.
The new system will run the latest version of Android and offer USB-C connectivity.
“The Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 platform with built-in AI capabilities offers a platform of improved interactivity, power consumption, and thermal efficiency,” said Vuziz CEO Paul Travers in a statement. “The Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses were designed to be best in class in enterprise and come equipped with Qualcomm’s XR1 processor, larger memory profile, better noise cancelling, a multifinger supported touchpad, built-in GPS, and more. The M400 with the XR1 processor is, by almost every measure, an order of magnitude faster than current solutions on the market. The performance improvements also mean that for less processor-intensive applications power consumption is expected to also be much less. Qualcomm Technologies has been a great partner for Vuzix, and we look forward to expanding our relationship to support the burgeoning AR smart glasses market.”
