Contextual awareness or in simpler terms, a property of mobile devices that is defined complementarily to location awareness has been around for a few years with it’s functions and reliability improving over time as technology develops and many tech companies continue to invest in it. One such company is Qualcomm Technologies, the mobile technology and processor manufacturer best known in the Android world for its vast lineup of “Snapdragon” system-on-a-chip components mainly used in flagship smartphones.
In a blog post recently, Qualcomm announced it’s All-Ways Aware hub which is featured in it’s Hexagon DSP architecture and integrated in it’s latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processors namely the Snapdragon 820 . How it works is that multiple sensors located in your device will constantly sense and collect data all the time and, according to the blog post, can do some pretty cool things based on the information it collects. One advantage that it possesses is that you will not need to worry about the All-Ways Aware hub from draining your devices battery as the Hexagon DSP architecture integrated into Qualcomm processors use very minimal battery life. The All-Ways Aware hub also has the ability to determine your location indoors by combining sensor and location data.
Qualcomm’s All-Ways Aware hub will be used by internet giant Google for it’s Awareness API which was recently announced at this year’s Google I/O. According to Qualcomm, All-Ways Aware comes with an entire sensor ecosystem which will be able to work with Google and Qualcomm Technologies to build a generation of always-on contextual experiences. A little bit on what Google’s Awareness API can do is that it has the ability to check on seven different context clues; time, location, type of place a user is in, physical activity a user may be engaging in, nearby beacons, the weather and the presence of headphones. The All-Ways Aware hub will be at ground zero to enable these abilities due to it’s always-on capabilities.
Additionally, Qualcomm stated that it’s Snapdragon processors being coupled with Google’s Awareness API has the advantage in enabling contextual awareness in devices because of their ability to collect information from both sensors and wireless connections and to do it with the use of minimal battery life. As contextual awareness is evolving, the way we interact with our devices will also have the potential to change.