Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon – ear we go

Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Sound platform points to a future in which earbuds and headphones become AI assistants shifting interactions away from the smartphone.

That is the more interesting message behind Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform, designed to turn earbuds, headphones and smart glasses into always-available interfaces for AI.

Qualcomm says Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 has twice the AI capability of its predecessor while consuming up to 40 per cent less power and occupying up to 30 per cent less space.

The platform supports conventional earbuds and headphones as well as open-ear products, audio glasses and camera-equipped devices.

It also includes low-power Wi-Fi 6E, allowing a wearable to connect directly to cloud-based AI services rather than relying entirely on a Bluetooth connection to a smartphon

Qualcomm believes people will increasingly interact with artificial intelligence by talking and listening rather than opening an app and looking at a screen.

Instead of simply playing music and handling phone calls, future devices could translate conversations in real time, answer questions about a user’s surroundings, provide contextual information and act as a permanent voice interface to AI services.

Some could also incorporate cameras, allowing an AI assistant to understand what its wearer is looking at as well as what they are saying and hearing.

Qualcomm says the cameras envisaged for these products are intended to provide environmental context rather than simply take photographs.

Beyond the smartphone

This potentially shifts some everyday digital interaction away from the smartphone screen.

Smartphones are likely to remain the communications and computing hub behind many of these experiences but AI creates an opportunity for a new layer of devices that sit between the phone and the user.

An earbud that can connect to an AI service doesn’t necessarily require you to use a handset. Which explain why technology companies are increasingly interested in smart glasses, camera-equipped wearables and other so-called multimodal devices..

Battleground

For manufacturers, the opportunity is to create products whose capabilities improve after they have been sold.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound Apps & Agents platform is designed to allow manufacturers to connect devices to AI assistants, services and content that can be updated over time.

Wireless earbuds have competed on sound quality, battery life, noise cancellation, design and price. AI potentially gives another way to differentiate products and to build services and recurring revenues around the hardware.

Qualcomm is also supplying reference designs intended to reduce the time manufacturers need to develop and launch products.

At its Snapdragon Summit, audio manufacturer Cleer demonstrated an early concept combining sound, vision and AI using a Snapdragon Sound platform. Privacy, battery life, usefulness and price will ultimately determine whether intelligent wearables become mainstream products or another technology industry experiment.

The boffin bits

• Qualcomm aptX Lossless is designed to deliver rich, immersive audio quality for premium listening experiences.

• Qualcomm XPAN extends connectivity beyond traditional Bluetooth range, enabling more seamless and designed for uninterrupted audio experiences across devices.  

• AI-enhanced audio technologies, including new 5th Generation Qualcomm ANC, Qualcomm cVc  technology, and support for advanced multi-microphone architectures, are designed to improve noise cancellation, speech capture, and voice clarity for clearer conversations and more reliable interactions with AI assistants across a wide range of environments.

• Snapdragon Audio Sense Solution introduces innovative microphones with algorithms to deliver intelligent audio, helping devices hear voices and the world