Qualcomm locates augmented reality R&D in Vienna

LONDON — Wireless chip vendor Qualcomm Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) has opened the Qualcomm Austria Research Center GmbH in Vienna, Austria, as a center for the design and development of augmented reality and related technologies.

The term augmented reality describes where a direct or indirect view of the real world is augmented with computer-generated elements, which might include descriptive text or additional graphical information, which can be hyperlinked to the Internet.

The Vienna research hub builds upon intellectual property recently acquired from Imagination Computer Services GesmbH (Vienna, Austria), a developer of computer vision and augmented reality technology for mobile devices. In addition, a team of augmented reality researchers from Imagination have joined the Qualcomm Austria Research Center.

Imagination was founded in 1998 by researchers from the Vienna University of Technology. The company's technology has been featured in showcase augmented reality applications for a broad range of global consumer brands. Imagination's researchers have also been at the forefront of the academic community, publishing numerous research papers on augmented reality and related fields over the past 15 years.

"Augmented reality allows people to visualize cyberspace as an integral part of the physical world that surrounds them, effectively making the real world clickable and linked," said Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, in a statement. "As part of our efforts to bring augmented reality to market, Qualcomm has been continually enhancing the capabilities of mobile devices with high-speed connectivity, powerful applications and graphics processors, GPS, cameras and other sensors. The acquisition of Imagination's leading augmented reality technology and the opening of the Austria Research Center will accelerate this vision of the mobile device as the remote control for your life, both in the physical and digital worlds."