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Qualcomm and Unity link up to provide Android augmented reality platform

Make your screen come alive

Qualcomm and Unity link up to provide Android augmented reality platform
By Jon Jordan
|
Android

There's a lot happening in the world of mobile augmented reality at the moment, thanks to the rise of high quality cameras and motion sensors such as gyroscopes.

Devices like iPhone 4 and Nintendo 3DS in particular are being seized upon for their potential, but often the issue with AR concerns the quality of tools developers are supplied with.

Tooling up

It's an area US chip company Qualcomm is looking to improve upon. It recently announced it was working on an augmented reality platform and SDK to enable what it describes as "a new generation of vision-based augmented reality applications".

Due to launch in a beta version in the autumn, it will initially be made available for Android devices, and be free for developers.

To provide an idea of the sorts of games that will be available, Qualcomm's working with game engine company Unity, and at the recent Qualcomm Uplinq event it got Unity CEO David Helgason to show how the technology could work.

Check out the following video.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.