Discover how Google is unfolding the future of virtual reality and making it accessible to everyone
What a difference a year makes in the world of technology. Last year Google gave away its Cardboard virtual reality headset as a free gift to developers at the end of the Google I/O conference. This year, the product was firmly placed in centre stage during the conference keynote. One million Cardboard viewers have been shipped worldwide and over 500 compatible apps are available on the Play store. But Google is not going to stop there. With a new-look Cardboard viewer and an ambitious vision to make sharing virtual reality experiences accessible to everyone, the tech giant is pushing the envelope of virtual reality.
VR for everyone
If you’re not familiar with Cardboard, it’s similar to the Samsung Gear VR that was also launched last year. If that still doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s a headset where you insert your smartphone in the front to act as both the display and the computing power for your virtual reality experience. Stereoscopic lenses in the headset then convert compatible apps and games running on your phone into immersive 3D worlds.
The big difference between Samsung's Gear VR and Google’s Cardboard headset though is price. The Gear VR costs £200 and is only compatible with Samsung’s top-of-the-line phones, the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S6. Cardboard, on the other hand, costs as little as £20 and works with any Android phone. So why is it so cheap? Well, as you may have guessed from its name, Google’s headset is made of cardboard.
“Our goal with Cardboard was to make virtual reality available to everyone,” said Clay Bavor, Google’s vice president of product management, speaking at this year’s Google I/O conference on 28 May. “So we started with a piece of cardboard, some velcro, added some lenses and a rubber band. And amazingly enough, that was all you needed to turn your smartphone into a fully functional VR viewer.”
Bavor then went on to announce an updated version of the original Cardboard. However, rather than upgrading it with complicated new features, the update made it even more simplistic: the flatpack you assemble the Cardboard viewer from now only takes three steps instead of 12. Google has also got rid of the magnetic button that only worked with phones with built-in NFC and replaced it with a conductive one that will work with all devices.
If Cardboard sounds like it is disconcertingly low-tech, that’s because it is. Android smartphones already have the processing power and display quality to match virtual reality’s gold standard – the Oculus Rift. Oculus grabbed headlines as a Kickstarter project that was bought out by Facebook for $2 billion last year. A finished headset isn’t expected to appear until next year, but developer kits are already publicly available and sell for $350 (£225). However, a teardown video by the California-based repair firm iFixit, revealed that the screen from the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 is taken straight from the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It is perhaps no surprise then, that the Samsung Gear VR is also built using Oculus tech and runs Oculus apps. It’s also the reason other phone manufacturers are trying to break into the world of virtual reality. Sony is set to combine the displays from its Xperia smartphones and gaming expertise from the PlayStation 3 with the Project Morpheus headset, while HTC is working with games publisher Valve on the HTC Vive.
However, there is one major mobile manufacturer that's yet to enter the Matrix: iOS. Looking to rectify this, Google has made the new Cardboard viewer larger, not only so that it works with 6-inch Android phablets, but the iPhone 6 as well. The Cardboard app is also now free to download on the iOS App Store. As Bavor put it, “So it works with any phone. It fits any phone. The button works with every phone. But the software, the Cardboard SDK, it needs to work with every phone, too.”
An open-source ecosystem
If you’re still not comfortable with the idea of a paper headset, you’ll be glad to know that Google’s Cardboard viewer is like the Nexus of Android phones; it represents Google’s vision of how the product should be, but is far from the only Cardboard VR headset out there. As soon as Cardboard was announced, Google made the specifications for the headset totally open source. You can even download the Cardboard template for yourself and make your own, just visit google.com/cardboard.
This has led to an explosion of creative headsets that work with Cardboard’s software, but are made from different materials. For example, the Knox Aluminium is made, you guessed it, from aluminium but also wood, so it resembles the Morris Minor of VR. A company named I Am Card board mostly make near stock variations of the Cardboard headset, but in a range a different colours. However, it has also developed the premium XG VR, which is made of plastic and includes a foam lining for a more comfortable fit. It even comes with a Bluetooth controller, but it does retail for $279 (£179). Mattel is also getting in on the act, relaunching its classic kids toy, the View-Master, to work with Cardboard VR this autumn.
The three biggest manufacturers of Cardboard viewers are Knox Labs, I Am Cardboard and DODOcase. DODOcase is particularly interesting because up until the launch of the Cardboard, it only produced iPhone and iPad cases. However, Craig Dalton, co-founder of DODOcase doesn’t think it was that much of a sea-change for the company. “DODOcase is a tablet and phone accessory manufacturer. Smartphone VR viewers are essentially a phone accessory. We specialise in understanding how people use devices and creating products that complement that use.”
Dalton also believes that Cardboard has a distinct advantage over the Oculus Rift. “Smartphone VR [Cardboard] is the gateway to the entire VR industry. Without it, the industry will remain pigeon holed in the gaming community for years and will fail to realise its full potential. The price, portability and social sharing aspects of smartphone VRmake it the perfect entree to VR,” he concludes.
However, Cardboard has had its growing pains. With so much variation on the original design, some viewers have had slightly different optics and dimensions, so they won’t work as well with apps. To combat this, Google launched the Works with Cardboard program in April. This enables manufacturers to input their key parameters – such as focal length and inter-lens distance – and receive a QR code to place on their device. Users can then scan this code using the Google Cardboard app, and their VR experiences will be optimised for the viewer. Also, if you’re thinking of buying a Cardboard headset, look out for the Works with Cardboard badge to ensure that the product has been certified by Google.
DODOcase, Knox Labs and I Am Cardboard have all signed up. Dalton stresses the benefit of working with Google rather than alone. “Google and DODOcase share a similar vision as to where the market can go,” he says. “Google’s support of the software development community is critical in increasing the number of VR applications and the quality of those applications. Our collaboration is a circle where top-quality viewers lead to more use of software and top-quality software will lead to more viewer sales.”
While manufacturers have been creating new viewers, app developers have been experimenting with different kinds of virtual reality experiences. There are now 500 Cardboard-compatible apps on the Play store, including tours of the solar system in Titans of Space, 3D live performances from Paul McCartney and Jack White, as well as games, such as ghost story Sisters by Otherworld Interactive and space shoot’em up Vanguard V.
Critics might argue that even Cardboard’s most sophisticated apps and games don’t offer more than a 30-minute experience. This is little more than a gaming demo and isn’t going to attract the sort of hardcore gamers that are used to playing Skyrim or Destiny on a games console. Currently, Oculus doesn’t offer games that are much more in-depth either, but it has recently invested $10 million to help developers and is working with some of the world’s biggest gaming studios, including Square Enix, the creators of the phenomenally popular Final Fantasy series.
In contrast, Google hasn’t created a fund to support developers, but continues to make lots of tools available to developers for free, including the new Google Design Lab app. This app includes user guidelines for creating VR experiences. The company also continues to hire internally, for instance, it bought up the company behind Tilt Brush, a 3D painting app.
Craig Dalton is very optimistic about the money to be made as a virtual reality app developer. “Today, developers have a green field opportunity. I’m encouraging our partners to ‘go, go, go!’” he says “There will be new multimillion dollar development organisations created in VR, the only question I have is who they will be.”
Robert Mao, the founder of mobile development company Pixomobile, cancelled his pre-order of the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 after trying Cardboard. “I actually don't think Cardboard is better than the Oculus Rift itself, but based on the reason why I want to buy a Oculus Rift DK -- to test out prototype developments – Cardboard works better: it's much cheaper, it has decent quality. Most important, it will be much easier to develop a prototype and let many people test it, this is the killer part," Mao said. "It's much easier to find testers – you can even give away Cardboard along with your beta apps, there is no way to do it with Oculus," he added.
Virtual reality YouTube
However, being able to view virtual reality videos on Cardboard is so 2014. Google thinks it's time to share your own. You could already view panoramic PhotoSpheres that you’d captured with your stock Android camera in Cardboard, however, this was imperfect and sharing them was difficult. Google’s new system called Jump has been designed with Cardboard in mind, to specifically capture and create VR experiences, and then share them with the whole wide world.
“We want to put professional, previously impossible tools in the hands of any creator who’s motivated,” says Clay Bavor, “so that they can capture the world around them and then share it in a way that lets all of us jump to the top of that mountain, jump to any place or event on the planet and experience those sights and sounds as though we’re actually there.”
So how do you shoot VR videos? The answer is simple: with 16 cameras working together as one. Google has developed the Jump camera, an elaborate camera rig that can capture 3D worlds. The first array has been produced in partnership with GoPro, famous for its wearable action camcorders. But no on sale date or price has been announced, instead you can apply online and Google says it will provide rigs to 'select creators'.
In theory though, wannabe VR filmmakers could use any type of video camera and even make their own rigs. Bavor said they experimented with arrays made from 3D-printed plastic, machined metal and - of course - cardboard, while testing out the product. “What’s critical is the actual geometry and we spent a lot of time optimising everything,” he says. “The size of the rig, the number and placement of the cameras, their field of view, relative overlap – every last detail,” he adds. Just as it made the template for the original Cardboard open-source, Google will make this geometry available to everyone later this summer.
However, the next step of the Jump process relies on Google software. Called ‘The Assembler’, this program stitches the 16 raw videos into a seamless panorama with thousands of in-between viewpoints. These videos are very high resolution – the equivalent of five 4k TVs playing at once.
The final, and important step, is to then make your VR video available to everyone. Rather than build an app from scratch to showcase your VR experience or install an all-new player app, Google will be making Jump part of YouTube in the near future. You will then be able to search for VR experiences alongside ordinary videos on your phone, before donning your Cardboard headset. With Google’s new Cardboard headset and Jump camera, it has never been easier to become a member of the virtual reality fold.