A friend of mine turned up recently with a Google Cardboard a, well, cardboard phone holder that allows you to watch virtual reality content. I was interested to have a go but skeptical as to the longer term possibilities of the technology.
As you can see from the picture above the box has a place to put your phone which is held a few inches in front of a couple of lenses. You need specific apps in order to see the content which create a sort of stereoscopic effect. Although this is made of cardboard it is pretty robust although it can be a bit hard on the nose!
Where the real magic comes in is when you move your head as the view you see in front of you moves too. For example, a popular example application is a roller coaster which means that as you look down you can see the ground, look up and you’ll see the sky above you (or the ground if you are upside down!). This was really effective and made me feel quite queazy. The Google Cardboard app itself also has a number of good demos.
This is all fine but at this point it was pretty much a case of “so what?”. I could see how this might be applicable in gaming but I’ve never need much of a gamer so this wasn’t ever going to appeal to me. However, dig a little deeper and you can find some interesting apps that do show off the potential.
The first is the Rivet Music which allows you to watch a series of intimate jazz concerts getting you right up close and personal with the musicians. This was pretty cool but I found standing SO close to the musicians was a little off putting and holding up the Cardboard for an extended period is pretty tiring.
The other app that really shows off VR to the best effect and serves some useful purpose is Google’s own Street View. Using the app I was able to explore my street and others. It would be really useful if, for instance, you were buying a house and wanted to check out the surrounding areas before making a decision. The immersive nature of VR gives you a much better understanding of the area than just looking on the site itself.
So I am yet to be sold 100% on VR. I can see that there are applications that it could be great for and gaming is the one that really springs to mind but for other applications I am yet to be convinced that it won’t remain pretty niche in the short term.
Oh and VR headsets other than Google’s Cardboard are available. Here I am using Mattel’s View-Master VR which is a neat update on the original ViewMaster. This is more robust than the Cardboard but heavier and bulkier too so not too suited to longer sessions.
Have you tired VR? Let us know what you think in the comments.