As the latest flagship smartphones are announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by the likes of HTC, LG, Sony and others, chip maker Qualcomm is already looking to enhance the next generation of phones that haven't even been thought up yet.

The company has announced the next version of its Snapdragon processor at its press conference at Mobile World Congress, alongside other new features it will have.

At the core of your next device will be the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor that promises to hugely improve on the capabilities of its current flagship processor found in the latest HTC One M9 and the LG G Flex 2.

The new processor, which should make it into devices by second half of this year, will also come with Qualcomm's Kryo 64-bit CPU tech and a new machine learning feature dubbed Zeroth.

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Detailed as a machine learning tech, Qualcomm says Zeroth will be used in cameras to auto-detect what you are taking a picture of and then sets the right scene mode for the camera based on what you are taking pictures of. 

In a demo of the new technology, Qualcomm showed how it could detect flowers, fruit, and even a watch without any input from the user. 

Qualcomm says it will also learn what you are taking pictures of so it gets better and better over time including understanding who you are taking a picture of by recognising their faces.

Although not specific to the Snapdragon 820 processor, the company has announced an alternative to Apple's TouchID.

Available from the second half of this year, the new fingerprint sensor promises to be better than Apple's TouchID by using ultrasonic waves to measure your fingerprint beyond just the surface layer.

That says Qualcomm will make for a much more precise measurement, but perhaps most importantly for most people the ability to still use the finger print scanner when they are sweaty, have hand lotion on, or any debris.