Google has released an app that lets you slot your Android phone into some cardboard to make a virtual-reality headset.
The app, titled Cardboard, is either a clever way of making virtual reality accessible to a large number of people at relatively little cost, or a joke at the expense of Facebook -- which just shelled out $2 billion for Oculus VR. Or both. "Virtual reality has made exciting progress over the past several years. However, developing for VR still requires expensive, specialised hardware," Google says on the project website. "Thinking about how to make VR accessible to more people, a group of VR enthusiasts at Google experimented with using a smartphone to drive VR experiences."
The outcome was Cardboard, which Google describes as "a no-frills enclosure that transforms a phone into a basic VR headset, and the accompanying open software toolkit that makes writing VR software as simple as building a web or mobile app".
To build it yourself, you'll need a load of corrugated cardboard (Google suggests using an extra-large pizza box), a pair of lenses with a 40mm focal distance to keep the screen in focus, two magnets to act as hardware buttons, some velcro strips, an eightcm rubber band to hold the phone in place, and an optional NFC tag to launch the app by tapping the headset. For construction, you'l also need a ruler, glue, scissors and a Stanley knife. Once you've gathered all that together, you can grab the cardboard design files here.
It works with regular glasses, and there's both an Android app and some Chrome experiments for you to play with once you've got it up and running.
It's worth noting that this isn't the first project to take a DIY approach to virtual reality. FOV2GO, created by Mark Bolas, was released two years ago and used similar techniques.
Google adds: "By making it easy and inexpensive to experiment with VR, we hope to encourage developers to build the next generation of immersive digital experiences and make them available to everyone."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
