Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 835 virtual reality development kit

Qualcomm on Thursday launched a new virtual reality development kit (VRDK) for the Snapdragon 835 mobile platform. The development kit gives developers early access to VR head mounted display (HMD) based on Snapdragon 835 platform for a standalone all-in-one wireless VR headset design.

The Snapdragon 835 based virtual reality development kit includes 4MP 2560 x 1440 WQHD AMOLED display (2MP per eye), 4GB RAM, 64GB flash storage and Integrated Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD9335). It supports WiFi, Bluetooth and USB 3.1 Type-C port for power.

It offers motion tracking to enable six degrees of freedom with two monchromatic 1MP (1280 x 800) cameras; and eye tracking with monochromatic VGA cameras with active depth sensing.

There's also a trackpad on the right side of the head-mounted display for input. For the trackpad, Qualcomm announced that it is partnering with Leap Motion to integrate its hand-tracking technology into the platform. The integration lets Qualcomm to render hand movements with low latency, essentially allowing you to use your hands as the controller in virtual reality. 

The virtual reality development kit is a reference design for third parties to create their own platform and develop VR headsets and Qualcomm has no plans to sell it to the general public.

Apart from developer kit, Qualcomm also announced HMD Accelerator program, under which the chip maker will provide tools to OEM so they can build VR products and bring them to the market quickly.

Qualcomm says the development kit will be available in the second quarter of 2017 through Qualcomm Developer Network, and VR OEM devices built with Snapdragon 835 are expected to ship in H2, 2017.

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