Qualcomm debuts on-device AI acceleration on 630, 835 platforms with Neural Processing Engine

American semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm has debuted a feature on its SoCs including Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 835  that allows the camera to recognise landmarks. The Moto X4 and Moto Z2 Force are the first commercially available smartphones that are said to come equipped with the feature.[caption id="attachment_3932725" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Reuters[/caption]The new Landmark Detection feature on these smartphones is powered by the Neural Processing Engine (NPE) on the Qualcomm chips that has been designed to bring artificial intelligence (AI) experiences on mobile devices. The feature allows the camera to identify the landmarks in near real-time and also provides additional information about the landmarks.According to a blog post by the company the AI enabled features on the chip is trained to recognise more than 1,200 landmarks from around the world. The features can be activated on the Moto X4 by clicking on the 'X' icon on the camera while shooting a photograph.According to the post the feature is accelerated by distributing the processing with the Adreno 510 GPU available on the Moto X4 device that comes with Snapdragon 630. The Moto Z2 Force comes with Adreno 540 GPU that helps the chip (Snapdragon 835) in accelerating the AI feature on the device.The Snapdragon NPE has been designed to empower developers and OEMs to make life easier without sacrificing power of performance. The blog mentions that the feature can be used by developers and OEMs to advance AI in various sector including mobile devices. Other sectors that can benefit from the feature are automotive, healthcare, security and imaging products. Landmark Detection feature is one example of the possible usage of on-device AI.