Wednesday 2 March 2016

Google Cardboard - Quick first impressions

A quick review of my first five minutes with Google Cardboard.



I decided to buy a Google cardboard kit off eBay recently as a novelty extra for our daughters birthday. She enjoys roller coaster videos and I thought she might like watching them on this either in one of the Virtual reality apps, or the YouTube 360 video's.



Google cardboard, if you haven't heard of it is a viewer which lets you slot your phone into it and then access a VR world of specially designed apps and videos. It uses side by side video to create a notion of 3D and your phones gyroscopic sensors to track your head motion. 


You can experience a similar version if this by visiting YouTube's 360 Video channel on your smartphone and them moving your handset around to see the full video view, or on your PC by panning with your mouse. 

On first impressions after spending five minutes putting it together I'm really impressed. Ok the cardboard nature of the viewer makes it a bit basic however I'm sure that if its getting used regularly we will move up from the £3.50 basic one to one of the more comfortable and sturdy looking plastic ones that are about £15.00 


Our daughter watched the demo video and was really impressed. It was great as a bystander watching her looking around and seeing her reacting to what was being shown on screen. I've had a quick play with the menu's and the Google Earth viewer for a minute or two and thought it was great. I have downloaded a couple of VR games from the Playstore but haven't had a chance to try them yet.

I will be posting a more detailed review once i have had some time to fully play with the functions however even on first impressions i would urge anyone to spend a few pounds and buy a cardboard kit from eBay and try it themselves. You won't be disappointed.

Has anyone already been using Google Cardboard, if so what are you thoughts? Are there any killers apps or videos to try out with it?


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