Google Cardboard is a virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google for use with a fold-out cardboard mount for a mobile phone. It is intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and development in VR and VR applications.[1][2] It was created by David Coz and Damien Henry, Google engineers at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris, in their 20% “Innovation Time Off”,[3] and was introduced at the Google I/O 2014 developers conference for Android devices.
I think it’s a great tool, and it would greatly help developers learn more about VR technology without having to buy high-cost VR tool kits such as Occulus Rift. Although, google cardboard is not a competitor to any of the VR headsets, it’s still amazing in it’s own. I read that unity supports it, so, what do you think? isn’t it a great way for both consumers and devs to get immersed in VR ?
I bought some Chinese “version” of it with head straps+remote for around 10 euros and with a large phone its pretty good for the price when comparing to Oculus DK1 and definitely a good thing to get in the VR world. You just need a decent phone for the games to run smoothly as low fps is very bad thing in VR. You can’t really use it with desktop games even with streaming or etc. in case if anyone wonders as even small delay will make the experience horrible.
I would assume at least $200 but have only tested it with iPhone 4S-6, and SGS 3-4 and oldest ones had some lag in the apps we tried. It depends how much stuff is thrown in the screen x2. For 3D youtube videos any phone will do and might be worth the money alone at least if the screen is big and has high dpi
I built a custom designed version using 4.5x magnifying lenses (30mm Ø, 55mm focal length) and a Note 3 (the screen of which was used for the DK2).
Works great for 3D movies. Combined with Samsung’s Group Play app, I’m able to watch 3D movies with my wife with little to no sync issues
VR apps generally had some rotational drift issues. Not much, but enough that you didn’t want to play for long without a swivel chair.
Google Cardboard/DIY HMDs are a great entry point for sure (especially with quad HD phones), but the Rift definitely has them beat in the tracking department.
Edit: really don’t want to do it with anything smaller than a phablet with a 1080p screen though. The screen size on a 5" phone is almost too small, and anything less than 1080p on a phablet leads to screen door issues.
It’s not as bad as you might think, I use a Samsung Galaxy S2 and that has a low res screen, It’s comparable to the Dk1 in resolution and it’s much better with regards to smear.
Unless it gives him a headache, or motion sickness, or the resolution is too low to actually see any details. Which may result in him stating “This is trash”. Trust me, I’ve been there before when I was choosing inexpensive devices for my first experience. Most of them were either returned, shelved, or thrown in the trash. Many of them within the first day or two.
Perhaps that phone has a 30hz screen and that would have issue, if it was 60hz then their is no reason for head aches, motion sickness or not being able to see details.
I don’t have a VR setup. My point is more that you don’t want to necessarily go cheap unless the parts you get are known to be quality for the price tag. I couldn’t find any actual specifications for that phone aside from the resolution of 854 by 480.
If I actually decided to try Google Cardboard, I’d likely pick up a refurbished phone (the Note 3 is ~$100).
Unless you know of a phone that is rocking a USB 3.0 port there simply won’t be enough bandwidth. The few displays I’ve investigated that were driven by USB are heavily compressed and low refresh rate. I can’t imagine it would be sufficient.
The Oculus Rift uses an HDMI cable to receive the video. Any idea if there are phones that can receive HDMI?
I am using my Iphone5 and Google cardboard v1. I think it’s good with this price. As there is already some app like Duet in the market, I think people will find a way to turn their mobile in to PC VR headset
I imagine Cardboard is already successful, maybe even pays for it’s self (Although they have some huge names that are probably getting paid a fortune on that team)
A hybrid approach is better IMO. I think that the phone will deal with geometry while computers will deal with actual rendering that then is pasted onto this simple geometry on a phone, that way it’s not required to get the input at low latency because it’s not going to effect the frame rate.
