Tag: Cardboard

VR update: Google launches Works with Cardboard and acquires; Freefly arrives

Posted on by Inara Pey

Cardboard, Google’s open-sourced approach to VR, has really taken off in the 10 moths since it launched. As well as the original headset made from, err, cardboard, there have been offerings from the likes of South Korean giant LG, while at the  end of 2014, Virgin Holidays adopted Cardboard as a means of offering customers a “try-before-you-buy” VR experience on certain holidays. It has even spurred an update to the 75-year-old Viewmaster.

Such is the popularity of Cardboard as a development platform that it is actually becoming hard to identify what might work with what; the open-source nature of the platform means when it comes to hardware, people can tweak things to their heart’s content – optics, focal length, dimensions, etc., with the result that not all headsets play nicely with apps created using the Cardboard SDK.

In an attempt to counter issues of poor experience, Google announced the Works with Cardboard initiative on Thursday, April 16th. The idea is to ensure that any Cardboard viewer / headset will work with any Cardboard app. It does this quite cleverly: manufacturers define their viewer’s key parameters to Google, and in return receive a QR code. People buying the viewer can then scan the QR code using the Cardboard app, and all Cardboard VR experiences they run on their ‘phone will be automatically optimised to run on the viewer / headset until such time as another QR code is scanned.

WWCIn addition, manufacturers can apply to Google for a programme certification badge (shown on the right) to place on their product, indicating it is suitable for running Google Cardboard VR experiences.

Alongside the new Works with Cardboard initiative, Google have also announced a new set of development guidelines are being put together on the web. These are a little light on specifics right now, but will grow as a resource.  The company has also revamped Google Play’s coverage of VR so that experiences can now be categorised by the following types: Music and Video, Games, and Experiences.

Perhaps most interestingly in terms of Google’s VR news, and as revealed by Road to VR, the company has acquired two VR start-ups.

The first is software studio Skillman & Hackett, who had been developing the award-winning Tilt Brush software, which allowed users to draw in VR using three dimensions, with paint, light, and textures, and then play their creations back. The software can be used  with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets to create scenes and paintings and play them back, while Cardboard users could use the Tilt Brush app to view art created using the software on other platforms. With Google acquiring Skillman & Hackett, it’s not clear if development of Tilt Brush will now continue.

The other company gobbled by Google is Dublin-based Thrive Audio, specialising in positional audio for realistic surround sound for VR experiences. With two patents filed for the technology they’ve been developing, it looks like Thrive will be added to Google’s growing team of VR specialist working on enhancing the Cardboard SDK.

Freefly

The Freefly headset is designed to work with a range of Smartphones
The Freefly headset is designed to work with a range of Smartphones, both iOS and Android

April 2015 also saw the launch of Freefly VR, from UK-based Proteus Labs. With an introductory (“10% off”) price of £59.00 (US $99.00 / 79.00 Euros), the headset is designed to work with any smartphone with a screen size of between 4.7 in and 6.1 in diagonally, both iOS and Android. Freefly utilises the open-source ALP VR SDK, and the headset is not fully compatible with Cardboard apps with use a ‘phone’s magnetometer for input purposes, as this is used for positional head tracking.  To find out more on the system, read the overview over on Road to VR.

Yes, you can have a View-Master with your virtual reality

Posted on by Inara Pey
The re-vamped View-Master for VR from Mattel, and one of the scenic discs that accompany it
The re-vamped View-Master for VR from Mattel, and one of the scenic discs that accompany it (image: Mattel Inc.)

Alongside all the the news and hype surrounding VR in 2014, there were a lot of witty / dour comments relating to the old Mattel View-Master system, and how people would prefer to have that, rather than strapping a plastic brick to their forehead.

Well, it looks like the laugh might be on those cracking such jokes, as Mattel have announced that the View-Master brand is to be revamped as a virtual reality headset system utilising Google Cardboard software.

Announcing the move at the New York City Toy Fair, which opened to the public in – wait for it – New York City on February 14th, 2015, Mattel’s Senior Vice President of Global Brands, Doug Wadleigh said the aim of the partnership is “to create the View-Master brand for the next 75 years,” and offer kids the chance to have “a collectible they can keep in their room.”

The iconic View-Master has been through many iterations during it 75-year history
The iconic View-Master has been through many iterations during it 75-year history, but has always had the same basic functionality (image: doyouremember.co.uk)

The original View-Master, which incredibly celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014, was once a staple part of many children’s toy boxes. With it, kids could load circular reels of 3D images into a hand-held, binocular-like device with a lever on the side which is used to flip through the pictures, providing the user with a stereoscopic views of landmarks, scenery, historic events, and so on.

The new system announced at the NYC toy fair retains much of this original functionality. It comprises a hand-held  device into which a mobile phone running the Cardboard software can be fitted.

Like the original, it is designed to use special scene “reels”; only rather than being placed in the unit, the disc-like reels are placed on a flat surface in front of the user. When viewed through the device, they generate AR-style navigational environments which the user then “enters”. This allows, for example, the key locations in a virtual “tour” to be visualised AR-style, and then individual locations within the tour selected and viewed immersively, with additional information on sights and locations being provided by pop-up text boxes.

In actual fact, the “reels” are optional, if people prefer, they will be able to download the immersive experiences directly to their smartphone for us with the new View-Master. However, the reels are being provided to maintain the “collectible” aspect of the original View-Master system, which Mattel see as an additional selling-point for the system. They plan to grow the range of available reels over time to provide many different types of experience, some of which – in a possibly canny move – might be built around the company’s other products.

For example, Mattel is already talking in terms of a video shot from within one of their “Hot Wheels” toy cars as it races through a “Hot Wheels” track, putting the person watching “behind the wheel” of the car.

Commenting further on the re-vamp, Wadleigh said, “The View-Master was first introduced in 1939, giving consumers access to spectacular 3D worlds by simply selecting a reel and looking through a device. By working with Google’s Cardboard platform, we are now able to take that experience even further, bringing the discovery and immersive viewing experience of the View-Master to the digital age.”

Google are also delighted with this further move into a broader VR presence for Cardboard, which comes hard on the heels of LG launching their VR for G3 virtual reality headset. Commenting on the partnership with Mattel, which doesn’t include any licensing arrangement or revenue sharing for Google, Cardboard Product Director Mike Jazayeri, said in a press release, “We developed Google Cardboard as an open platform to inspire companies like Mattel to rethink how to deliver new user experiences through technology. Many of us on the Google Cardboard team grew up playing with View-Master, so we were excited to collaborate with Mattel and to see the viewer evolve and work with Google Cardboard.”

The new View-Master is due to go on sale from autumn 2015 at a suggested price of $29.99 (£19.50) for the headset (sans smartphone), and the company hope to have it available for both Android handsets and iPhones. One image disc will be supplied with the device, and additional discs will be sold at $14.99 (£9.75) each.

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LG morph Cardboard into plastic to rival Samsung in the mobile VR world

Posted on by Inara Pey
LG's VR for G3 uses Google Cardboard to bring VR to users of their G3 'phones
LG’s VR for G3 uses Google Cardboard to bring VR to users of their G3 ‘phones

In June 2014, Google informed the world that, in order to enjoy a VR experience on your mobile ‘phone, all you need is … Cardboard. Then, as I reported at the end of 2014, Samsung announced the availability of its Gear VR headset, which utilises their Galaxy Note 4 phablet and technology from Oculus VR, while Zeiss released VR One for the Samsung Galaxy S5 and iPhone 6.

Now, not to be outdone, Samsung’s home-grown rival in the world of mobile devices and consumer electronics, LG, is also getting in on the act.

On Monday, February 9th, LG announced the availability of VR for their G3 handsets. Like Google’s DIY cardboard kit (made available in full kit form by Dodocase, to save you having to source the parts yourself), VR for G3 is a hand-held unit providing a set of optics into which LG’s new range of G3 ‘phones can sit. In fact, not only does it look like Google Cardboard’s grown-up cousin, it is actually based on the cardboard headset design and is intended to be used with the Google Cardboard development environment for mobile VR experiences, and any apps built using that environment.

What’s more, it’s free. Well, free for those buying a new LG G3 handset, and then possibly only for a limited time period. Currently, no details have been released on pricing once the promotional period has ended. It is also currently unclear if VR for G3 will be made available as a separate accessory for the G3 ‘phone.

The hand-held headset is modelled on Google's original Cardboard DIY headset, and utilises the Cardboard development environment and applications
The hand-held headset is modelled on Google’s original Cardboard DIY headset, and utilises the Cardboard development environment and applications

“This is just the beginning of the virtual reality movement, which until recently was expensive and inaccessible to everyday consumers,” Chris Yie, vice president and head of marketing communications at the LG Electronics Mobile Communications, was quoted as saying in a press release from the company announcing the move. “By leveraging Google Cardboard, not only are regular consumers able to participate in the VR experience, we’ll be able to introduce this technology to future developers who may one day show us how VR can be used to improve our lives.”

VR for G3 will be rolled-out across LG’s global markets over the coming month, and the promotion will include a code allowing purchasers of the handset and headset to download the VR game Robobliteration.

With a screen resolution of  2560 x 1440, and packing a whooping 538 pixels-per-inch, the G3 handset is seen by LG as an ideal candidate for running immersive VR applications, and the hand-held headset includes optics specifically designed to leverage the screen’s capabilities.  As with Google’s original Cardboard design, a ring mounted on the left side of the headset, together with a small magnet within the unit work with the gyroscope sensor in the G3 to select applications and scroll through menus without the user needing to touch the display.

The G3 'phone sits within the snap-one cover of the headset, but the unique design of the 'phone, with it's back-mounted sleep button meanes that it doesn't have to be removed in order to place the phone into, or bring it out of, sleep mode
The G3 ‘phone sits within the snap-one cover of the headset, but the unique design of the ‘phone, with it’s back-mounted sleep button means that it doesn’t have to be removed in order to place the phone into, or bring it out of, sleep mode

Google are also keen to emphasise their involvement in LG’s entry in to the VR marketplace. “With Google Cardboard, we wanted to create more immersive and delightful experiences for anyone on their mobile devices,” Andrew Nartker, Product Manager for Google Cardboard is also quoted as saying in the LG press release. “We are excited about VR for G3, and the rich ecosystem of developers and manufacturers who are innovating with Google Cardboard and making VR more easily accessible.”

How much of an actual market exists for mobile VR has yet to be seen (by necessity, VR-on-the-go is more suited to sitting down rather than wandering the streets, so many might perfer to await the arrival of Oculus Rift CV-1 and similar headsets). However, it would appear that manufacturers like LG might see it as a way of reinvigorating ‘phone sales in the face of an saturated market.

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All images courtesy of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.