Google Releases Open Source Plans For Cardboard V2 Virtual Reality Viewer

An anonymous reader writes: After revealing an improved version of Cardboard, the super-low cost virtual reality smartphone adapter, Google has now also freely released the detailed design documents, encouraging people to use them for projects ranging from DIY fun to full blown manufacturing. The v2 version of Cardboard is easier to assemble, has larger lenses, a universal input button, and is bigger overall to support larger phones.

Comments

April Fools!

[slazzy]

Every time I hear about the cardboard Virtual Reality Viewer I think it must be April 1st... Really not a bad idea though.

Re:April Fools!

[Anonymous Coward]

Some cynical asshole said "$500 for a screen and some lens? Just shove your phone in your face. Anything could provide the frame, even cardboard."

He was right though.

Re:April Fools!

[FranTaylor]

Really not a bad idea though.

google cardboard is more comfortable and easier to use than the crappy vr gear we had in the 1990s, which cost many thousands of dollars.

Re:April Fools!

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you sure?

Re:April Fools!

[fredzouille]

google cardboard is more comfortable and easier to use than the crappy vr gear we had in the 1990s, which cost many thousands of dollars.

Consumer HMDs in the 90s didn't cost many thousand of dollars, they were under $1000. You obviously don't know what you're talking about.

- VictorMaxx Stuntmaster (1993) : $219
- Victormaxx CyberMaxx (1994) : $699
- Victormaxx CyberMaxx 2.0 (1995) : $889
- Virtual IO i-glasses (1995) : $799
- Forte VFX1 (1995) : $995
- Philips Scuba (1997) : $299

And it's quite obvious that they are crappy compared to what is available now considering the past 20 years of technological progress. The contrary would have been quite surprising.

iDouche

[Anonymous Coward]

Its good that ex-hipster dbags, no longer recognizable due to post-peak-beard, are going to self identify by walking around with a cardboard box stuck to their face.

Re:iDouche

[Anonymous Coward]

I was walking around with a cardboard box stuck to my face before it was cool.

Re:iDouche

[Anonymous Coward]

Were you the computer in Dilbert in the early '00s?

More Work

[LifesABeach]

Now I've got to have a VR version of my OpenGL app for both Apple, and Android

CORRUGATED PAPER

[Spy Handler]

I worked in the IT dept of a paper box company once. If there's one thing I still remember from the experience, it's that we never ever called it cardboard. It was always corrugated paper.

I swear, if anyone ever said "carboard" the CEO would punch him in the face.

Re: CORRUGATED PAPER

[Anonymous Coward]

Why?

Re: CORRUGATED PAPER

[Anonymous Coward]

If you made paper boxes for a living you would figure out a way to make it sound more important than it was too.

Shear boredom is probably at work here.

Re:CORRUGATED PAPER

[Dutch Gun]

I suppose it makes more sense to be more precise in a company that actually makes paper boxes, but in general, it's still just pissing against the wind. You can be technically correct, but it doesn't matter, as 99.99% of the population will still incorrectly call corrugated fiberboard "cardboard" (especially "cardboard boxes"). Over time, as usage approaches critical mass, the old "incorrect" definition will always become the new "correct" definition. Then, there will be a historical footnote explaining the discrepancy. That's how language works.

Re: CORRUGATED PAPER

[Anonymous Coward]

Because cardboard is a vague, generic term that applies to a variety of products from heavy card stock, to laminated stuff like cardboard tubes, to chipboard, to corrugated paper. If the op worked at a company that specifically made the last one, than they likely want to be specific.

Re: CORRUGATED PAPER

[pr100]

... what's that got to do with punching people?

Re:CORRUGATED PAPER

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not that cardboard is even incorrect though. Cardboard is just a much broader term, and often useless in some parts of the industry because of the large amount of things that come under that name. The whole evolution of language has little to do with it.

Just think of the things that come under the term "computer" and how many companies could be called non-descriptively a computer company. If you worked at a company that made network appliances, the administration probably would want employees to be more specific than saying they made and sold computers.

Re:CORRUGATED PAPER

[Anonymous Coward]

"Google Corrugated Paper" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

This is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see Google innovating again.

Does it work on phones without g-sensor yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

No? Fuck off.

Why can't you make your own?

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid to buy one.

Fun, for about an hour!

[billstewart]

My siblings gave me a Google Cardboard set the last year, and I finally had a phone that could run it (Samsung G4mini - a bigger phone would have worked a bit better.) It was a lot of fun for an hour or two, so it was worth the $5 or whatever it cost. It wasn't all that practical - among other things, the demo YouTube watching app tended to get misaligned, so instead of sitting in a regular chair to use it, you either needed a swivel chair or else you needed to stand up, because you're be drifting around in one direction or the other for a while. But hey, a couple of games, an art museum, and the ability to watch a few 3D videos, it's as good as a ViewMaster.

Re:Fun, for about an hour!

[fredzouille]

it's as good as a ViewMaster.

The ViewMaster is only a 3D viewer though, Google Cardboard is a virtual reality device.

The difference is immersion, which requires head-tracking and a wide field of view. The ViewMaster only had a ~40-60 field of view, Google Cardboard V2 has been designed for a 80 field of view, which is the minimum required for immersion (see : http://www.leepvr.com/sid1992....).

Re:Fun, for about an hour!

[billstewart]

Sure. It's technically much more powerful, and in theory there could be more things you could do with it.

In practice, it was as much fun as a Viewmaster that comes with half a dozen photo disks, and that was more than enough fun to justify the $5 and the time to build it (which was part of the fun), but there wasn't anything to get me to come back and use it again after a day or two.