Skip to main content

Sesame Street and Star Trek features in new Qualcomm-powered technology

For those who missed the Qualcomm keynote this evening, you missed quite the celebrity mix. Between Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, actress Alice Eve, and Sesame Street’s Big Bird, Qualcomm certainly was strutting its stuff in an effort to demonstrate some of the new technology they planned to release in 2013, including several major software developments centered on the real world and mobile devices working together in unison.

While Qualcomm was coy not to mention a new Snapdragon or other big hardware upgrades (we’re betting on the MWC next month), they talked a lot about the “Sixth Sense” of computing, and how it allows you to be informed and in the loop in ways never before possible. This was the introduction to Qualcomm’s presentation of their new Vuforic, and other technology that they hope to have released in time for the summer. While Vuforic is not new, it’s yet to get anywhere near as in-depth a demonstration as Qualcomm showed today.

Related Videos

In one case, Big Bird and a team member of the Sesame Workshop came in and showed off the latest development of Qualcomm’s Vuforic tech in the realm of children’s applications. The app showed how it could recognize text and subsequently help teach a child words. It was an excellent demonstration of Vuforic’s ability to interact with the environment and virtually experience what is otherwise static.

Another case, featuring Alice Eve from the upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness, was a showoff for the new upcoming Star Trek movie. The movie will feature a new app experience powered by Qualcomm’s technology, allowing users to go on “missions” and add to the overall experience by checking out trailers, visiting certain locations, and more. This is just another example of the sort of tech Qualcomm hopes to bring to consumers once developers bring the tech into full swing.

Finally, Qualcomm decided to show off Adam Levine in a brief Maroon 5 performance before calling it a night. We’re excited to see which devices will be compatible (we guess many given how popular snapdragon is) with this new Qualcomm tech as it begins to debut in the coming months, and developers get a hold of the highly anticipated SDK in the spring.

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Tech For Change CES 2021 Awards
Tech for Change Awards Feature

CES is more than just a smorgasbord of new gadgets and flashy concepts for consumers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place. At CES 2021, this type of tech -- what we call Tech for Change -- was out in full force. We saw everything from solar-powered remotes that eliminate the need for disposable batteries, to machines that pull drinking water out of thin air. But of all the world-changing tech on display this year, these four innovations impressed us the most:

Valencell blood pressure sensor
Blood pressure is a profoundly useful health metric. With this single measurement, doctors can assess your risk of developing heart disease: The number one cause of death in the world. The only problem, of course, is that most of us only get our blood pressure checked when we visit the doctor, so high blood pressure can go undetected for years before it’s addressed.

Read more
Everything TCL has announced so far at CES 2021
TCL 2021 6-Series 8K TV

TCL has become a major player in the global electronics scene in recent years, most notably with high-quality TVs that can go toe-to-toe with the likes of Samsung and LG. And it looks like TCL isn’t going to let up in 2021.

At CES 2021, the Chinese electronics company announced a wealth of diverse products, including a new Roku TV lineup, a handful of new soundbars, an air purifier, a pair of smartphones, and a rollable tablet. If none of the aforementioned products caught your attention -- or you're looking for all the details -- here’s everything TCL has announced at the show so far.

Read more
LG CES highlights: Everything announced for 2021
LG transparent rollable smart bed TV

LG helped kick-off the first day of CES 2021 with a list of exciting product announcements highlighting TVs, phones, and various smart home technology. It's newest lineups of OLED TVs will help usher in a new era of home entertainment optimization and smart home devices -- and we're still trying to wrap our heads around the short glimpse of its rollable smartphone/tablet.

Below is everything LG has announced at CES 2021 so far.

Read more