Ever wish you could get just a little more access to hardware components to optimize your app? Well it looks like Android developers might be getting their wish fulfilled, and not just basic stuff but a fast track into the actual brain of their favorite smart devices.

Qualcomm has unveiled their Snapdragon SDK for Android which allows developers to access previously unavailable features through the new APIs. With the entail release Qualcomm is only making it available for the Snapdragon S4 8960 processor with more to follow later.

Some of the cool features developers can access are facial processing like smile and blink detection, a burst capture mode and surround sound recording mode.

To learn more head over to Qualcomm’s official blog

Dominique Friedl, Director of Business Development for Qualcomm in South Africa, says “We are bringing a lot of cool features to developers to drive open innovation. One of these is augmented reality which allows you to interact with world around you with unprecedented mobile user experience. AR is the concept of superimposing graphics on top of a view of the real world as seen through the device camera and Vuforia brings a new dimension to mobile experiences through the use of augmented reality. Vuforia provides industry-leading technology and performance on a wide range of mobile devices. Vuforia’s computer vision functionality will recognize a variety of 2D and 3D visual targets. With support for iOS, Android, and Unity 3D, Vuforia will allow you to write a single native app that can reach over 400 models of smartphones and tablets. ”

A great example of the support that Qualcomm is bringing to local developers is the newly released Snapdragon Augmented Reality app that was developed in South Africa by AppsbyBrats.

Dominique says developers can find out more about the new SDK and their developer program at QDevNet or by following them on twitter @Qualcomm_Dev.