Close Menu
  • Home
  • Celebrity Gossip
  • Entertainment News
  • Featured
  • Photo News
  • Advertise with Us
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube WhatsApp
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube WhatsApp TikTok
BigEye.UG
Subscribe
  • HOME
  • CELEBRITY GOSSIP
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • PHOTO NEWS
  • VIDEO NEWS
  • MONEY
    • Money
    • Features
BigEye.UG
Home»Tech and Gadgets»Google’s Cardboard turns your Android device into a VR headset
Tech and Gadgets

Google’s Cardboard turns your Android device into a VR headset

BigEyeUg3By BigEyeUg3June 26, 2014
Share
Facebook Twitter Telegram WhatsApp

Cardboard

While Facebook’s virtual reality effort involved a multibillion-dollar purchase of Oculus VR, Google’s gone with a decidedly simpler route: cardboard. Following the end of its Google I/O keynote, Google’s put out an app called Cardboard that lets users slot their Android device into a do-it-yourself cardboard viewer. When looked through using special lenses, you can interact with various Google services like a VR headset.

“Virtual reality has made exciting progress over the past several years. However, developing for VR still requires expensive, specialized hardware,” Google said on the project’s page. “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 result is Cardboard, which in its current state requires some DIY elbow grease, and cannot simply be bought as a completed product. In order to build it you need a pair of lenses with a 40mm focal distance to keep the phone’s screen in focus. The kit also requires magnets, velcro, a rubber band, and an NFC tag if you want to tap your device to the headset to launch the app right away. The magnet and rubber band serve as a makeshift hardware button for your phone, something decidedly analog.

Some of the early examples of things you can do with the current iteration of Cardboard:

• Earth: Fly where your fancy takes you on Google Earth.
• Tour Guide: Visit Versailles with a local guide.
• YouTube: Watch popular YouTube videos on a massive screen.
• Exhibit: Examine cultural artifacts from every angle.
• Photo Sphere: Look around the photo spheres you’ve captured.
• Street Vue: Drive through Paris on a summer day.
• Windy Day: Follow the story (and the hat) in this interactive animated short from Spotlight Stories.

Google says Cardboard was created as part of a 20 percent project, which is when employees can work on side projects alongside their normal duties. Some, like Gmail and AdSense, have ended up as actual Google products. An earlier version of Cardboard was built by David Coz and Damien Henry, two Google employees in Paris. That eventually led to a software development kit for VR experiences, something Google is describing as “experimental.”

Cardboard follows in the footsteps of other DIY virtual reality kits, including the FOV2GO, which was created by researcher and USC professor Mark Bolas. Like Cardboard, the FOV2GO makes use of off the shelf lenses and specially cut cardboard or foam core to hold a smartphone in a particular spot. It was unveiled two years ago at the IEEE VR Conference in California, and ended up winning an award for the best demo.

Source: The Verge

Related

Share. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Email
Previous ArticleAdam Levine Knows You Think He’s A Douchebag
Next Article Selena Gomez posts bikini selfie as secret date with Justin Bieber emerges

Related Articles

TECNO unveils thinnest tri-fold smartphone – the PHANTOM Ultimate G Fold

TECNO Unveils SPARK 40 Series: Ultra-Slim, Ultra-Strong Built for the Long Run

UN Women Launches Coding Hub in Jinja to Empower Uganda’s Next Generation of Female Tech Leaders

TECNO CAMON 40 Series now available in Uganda

TECNO Phantom V Fold2 5G and Phantom V Flip2 5G honored for their product design excellence at German Design Awards

IUEA Hosts Youth Fest 2024: Young People Leading the Charge in Technology, Energy, and Global Business

Latest News

TECNO Mobile Uganda celebrating 17 years of innovation and connection with exciting giveaways and customer rewards

August 6, 2025

Feffe Bussi, Karole Kasita unveiled as faces for Premier Distilleries’ “Bikole Masavu” campaign  

August 6, 2025

From Struggles to Success: How Equity Bank Transformed My Business

August 6, 2025

Gabzy Announces Full Scholarships for Two Exceptional Underprivileged Girls at International University of East Africa (IUEA)

August 6, 2025

Diamond Platnumz Admits Uncertainty About Number of Children, Says He Cares for Them All

August 6, 2025
Follow Us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • TikTok
  • WhatsApp
BigEye.UG
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube WhatsApp TikTok
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
© 2025 BigEye.UG | All Rights Reserved

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.