The Snapdragon gets smarter.
Mobile World Congress 2018 will soon be underway, but a few short days before the convention officially kicks off, Qualcomm has announced its latest venture – the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine.
Referred to as the simpler “AI Engine”, this is a new platform that combines both hardware and software tools for more impressive AI experiences on mobile devices. Qualcomm’s AI Engine will support the Snapdragon 660, 820, and 835. The company’s latest 845 chipset will also support the new engine, and it’ll do so in addition to its own on-device AI processing.
On the software side of things, the Qualcomm AI Engine is made possible thanks to the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine, Android Neural Networks API, and the Hexagon Neural Network. Speaking about this, Qualcomm’s Director of Product Management, Gary Brotman, said:
On-device AI demands multiple hardware architectures, software tools, and frameworks to meet developer demand and performance thresholds for the myriad of AI-powered features and apps arriving on smartphones this year. The AI Engine capabilities of select Snapdragon mobile platforms have and will continue to fuel AI innovation among our OEMs and ecosystem partners, engineered to result in the accelerated development and delivery of rich, seamless and compelling features for consumers.
Companies like Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus, and others have already been tapping into certain parts of the AI Engine for their products, and this has resulted in things like face unlock, scene detection, and bokeh portrait shots with just a single camera.
During this year’s MWC, Qualcomm will be demoing its AI Engine tech with demonstrations from Deep Portrait, Inner Magic, Animoji from Face++, and more.
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