Mobile World Congress just wrapped up in Barcelona. The most significant announcement came from mobile chip and XR chip giant Qualcomm, which announced it partnered with 7 major telecoms to advance smartphone- tethered AR glasses which will use its Snapdragon Spaces. Spaces’ XR development tools enable the kind of dual compute needed to sustain latency free communications for data heavy XR applications. The operators include CMCC, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI Corporation, NTT QONOQ, T-Mobile, Telefonica, and Vodafone. All are working with Qualcomm on new XR devices, experiences, and developer initiatives.

One of the first to start using the new Snapdragon Spaces Qualcomm XR 2 framework is Xiaomi, a Chinese handset maker. The company unveiled their new prototype, called Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition, and powered by Qualcomm. The AR HMD weighs 126 grams and sports a pair of MicroLED screens with a peak brightness of 1,200 nits. The glasses have an auto dimming feature to assist in bright light and will be gesture controlled. Xiaomi does not yet have pricing info nor a release date.

Hexa’s proprietary tech stack digitizes products like furniture and fashion, using existing 2D images and, with AI, creating a new 3D model. The resulting digital asset can be deployed on websites, social media platforms or in AR applications. Users control the model with their cursor, allowing them to inspect the asset from any angle. Hexa provides storage, management, distribution, and analysis of the models its customers create. The Series A round was led by Point 72 ventures and existing investors.

source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2023/03/02/this-week-in-xr-hexa3d-raises-20m-avalon-metaverse-13m-ixaomi-unveils-new-ar-glasses/?sh=638ff3b27e4e