Google Cardboard
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Basics
- A Cheap(ish) way of SORT OF? (insert definition snobbery here) doing VR and to an EVEN LESSER capability AR and MR
- Uses a Smartphone and a headset with lenses and a head mount system to make a rudimentary All in One HMD
- Granted due to the display not being an optimized geometry quality is lesser, also depending on headset quality lenses may be bad (see the headset reccomendations section below)
- Also uses only Accelorometer-Compass-Gyroscope Dead Reconing for tracking and thus suffers from drifting in tracking overtime
- ALSO this limits the system to 3DOF unless an add-on like NOLO VR or PSVR Emulation is used
- It can be a HMD PC Tethering setup with the correct software, but most Smartphone IO is insufficient for high speed data transfer
- Also screen resolution is reduced when magnified and stretched etc by the lenses so ever 1440p looks more like 720p or a bit less
- Issues like the Screen Door Effect also arise due to the screen issue
- Overheating may be an issue due to most programs essentially maxing out the smartphone's hardware, but propper passive and/or active cooling aleviate this
Main Use Cases
VR Content
- Viewing Steroscopic "Flat" Videos and Images ("3D Movies" etc)
- Viewing Panoramas
- Viewing 360 Videos
- Viewing 3DOF VR Pictures
- Viewing 3DOF VR Videos
- Google Earth VR perhaps?
Telepresence
- Perhaps some sort of tethered cobot/telepresence bot camera's display?
Intro to VR
- There is some debate as to if a low quality experience will "scare off" non-early adopters, but it is a VERY cheap place to start if one has a good smartphone already and 10-60 USD to burn
Headset Reccomendations
Lowest Cost
- 8 USD Original Cardboard-Google Cardboard Clone
- Buy the lenses and 3d Print a frame?
Frequent Quick On The Go Use
- CLip on Model goes for ~15 USD, but can be folded and put in a pocket/large wallet/bag
- One of these is better than nothing due to transportation constraints
High Quality
- Zeiss VR One (best lenses, bad mount, may be going out of production?)
- Homido Prime or Homido V2 ~50 USD