Virtual Reality: a buzzword that has been floating around for the better part of the last three decades. Its roots actually extend farther back (to the 1960s, believe it or not, when a naval engineer mulled over more effective ways to portray graphical information for war strategies). But it was only during the 90s that popular interest in the subject was piqued with such movies as The Lawnmower Man, and of the course The Matrix Trilogy.
These days, products like the Oculus Rift are all the rage, and it’s not surprising to hear about new and pathbreaking ways in which virtual reality is on the cusp of changing everything from entertainment to medical procedures. If you happen to be a product developer who has the dough to spring on a pre-release VR kit, you’re clearly at the bleeding edge of it. But for the rest of us, it’s safe to say that virtual reality is still a while away. Or is it?
At their I/O conference in June this year, Google sprung a surprise just before the curtains went down--a doohickey they called Google Cardboard, which promised a VR experience using nothing more than folded cardboard, some lenses, and a decent cell phone. The prospect of experiencing virtual reality by simply slotting your phone into the front of a cardboard box seemed almost too good to be true. Folks thought it was a prank, and little importance was accorded to it at the time. But several months on, there’s a growing tribe of developers that are creating ever more intriguing apps for this too-simplistic-to-be-true product. I decided to get one and find out firsthand whether there was really any bite to its bark.
So how do you get your hands on one? Two ways: if you’re up for some elbow grease, you can download the instructions for building Google Cardboard, source a few simply components, and make one yourself. Or you could just buy one online. I found a pretty decent implementation online--this one was laser cut and actually built slickly, using a material slightly tougher than cardboard, lending it a more lasting heft.
Google recommends using these phones for the best VR experience, but you should be able to get Cardboard working with others as well (I tried it on a Redmi 1S and most of the demos worked, except in a few where the image didn’t completely fill the left-right screens halves.) So ideally, an Android phone with a screen size of 5-inches at least, with a Full HD (1920x1080) resolution. The better the specs, the better your experience (but phablets are a no-no: the cardboard casing can house no larger than a 6-inch phone).
The Google Cardboard app itself is pretty compelling--it has a set of seven demos that give you a taste of what’s up and coming in this impending VR wave. There’s Google Earth (which unfortunately does not work in our geographic region), Tour guide (a local tour guide of Versailles), YouTube (which simulates a massive VR wall of videos), Exhibit (where you can ‘walk around’ artefacts, much like you would at a museum), Photo Sphere (a particularly immersive view of 360-degree panoramas), and Street View (an admittedly stomach churning zip through the streets of Paris, because it’s all so fast and jerky). But the best one is undoubtedly ‘Windy Day’, an adorable animated short that has you follow a mouse and his hat around a (pixellated, yet ah-inspiring) virtual world. Very trippy.
After you’ve had your fill of the Cardboard app, be sure to hit up these others--there’s plenty to wow the gang with the next time you’re at the coffee shop. Although you may run the risk of coming across as dorky, donned in that headgear. But rudimentary or not, you’re sure to have a blast.
Paul McCartney: a 360-degree on-stage experience with the musical legend
VR Cinema for Cardboard: A big screen experience for your mobile videos
Orbulus for Cardboard VR: A cool app that lets you view panoramic photos
Tell us about your experience with Google Cardboard. And if you’ve used any of the full-blown VR systems like the Oculus Rift, we’d really like to know. Ping us in the comments below or on our Twitter channel @dna.
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 "Google, Cardboard, virtual reality, smartphone, app, Android")
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