OPINION : Qualcomm is place a lot of emphasis on AI - driven camera tech at Snapdragon Summit 2023 , from image remotion technical school like to Google ’s Magic Eraser to AI - driven cropping and panning tech that ’ll let you more well record tight - moving depicted object – but it go right smart beyond just taking photos and TV .

As part ofSnapdragon Summit 2023 , I ’ve been experiencing various technical school demo that showcase the nerveless stuff that theSnapdragon 8 Gen 3andSnapdragon X Elitecan do , but one demo in fussy stood out to me – and not for the reasons you might cerebrate .

That ’s because , rather than using the rear end - face up tv camera and its associated sensors to take photos or videos , Qualcomm has developed a Gen AI - powered demonstration that use existing camera tech to monitor you and your surround .

In the first part of the demo , Qualcomm demonstrated the ability to practice a camera ’s depth sensor – a common component feel on mostmid - rangeandflagshipsmartphone camera systems – to discover particles in the air . It then uses the Gen AI capabilities of the 8 Gen 3 to analyse this in real - prison term and extradite a readout of the air quality in your vicinity .

What ’s more impressive is that this is all done without any sort of internet connexion . The entire demonstration was done in Airplane manner , just to show how wide-ranging the use of Gen AI can be .

The 2nd part of the demonstration was just as interesting , as it use the Time of Flight sensor – another fairly common camera constituent on smartphones – to measure out your skin to determine how hydrated you are .

Again , this uses the Gen AI potentiality of the chipset to cipher this in substantial - time using datum from the sensor , without any sort of net connexion required – and it only took a twain of s to deliver my score .

Spoiler : I was desiccate , but after walking around the Summit in blistering weather all day , I was n’t really that surprised .

There was even a freestanding demonstration that used the ToF sensing element to determine whether a biscuit was refreshed or stale , even delivering a freshness rating .

Of naturally , Qualcomm is a silicon chip Almighty and has no direct control over which boast manufacturers end up using in their smartphones , so there ’s no elbow room of knowing whether we ’ll start seeing this sort of tech appearing in smartphones anytime before long .

However , the fact that readily useable camera detector can be repurposed for such wildly varied labor when combined with Gen AI opens up a whole server of opportunities for manufacturer and third - party developers likewise , and I ca n’t wait to see what ’s potential when 8 Gen 3 - equipped devices get down landing in peoples laps in the coming months .