The NPE software development kit is now available to all via the Qualcomm Developer Network, which marks the first public release of the SDK, and opens up a lot of potential for AI computing on a range of devices, including mobile phones, in-car platforms and more.

The purpose of the framework is to make possible UX implementations like style transfers and filters - basically what Snapchat and Facebook do with their mobile app cameras - with more accurate applications on user photos, as well as other functions better handled by deep learning algorithms, like scene detection, facial recognition, object tracking and avoidance, as well as natural language processing.

This will mean that anything you'd normally route to powerful cloud servers for advanced processing is done locally on the device instead.