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Virtual Reality for $10; Seriously
By othree – Google Cardboard, CC BY 2.0, Link
A few weeks after reading @danhanson’s excellent piece on the latest developments in consumer virtual reality technology, I received a small package in the mail that I initially mistook for a box of checks. On opening it, I was further perplexed to see that it was from the New York Times. “What the [expletive] is The New York Times sending me checks for!?” I asked. On closer inspection, I realized I’d received a complimentary Google Cardboard to advertise the Times’ new virtual reality app. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever owned, and you should get one. It’ll be the best ten bucks you spend this year.
The Google Cardboard is, essentially, a cardboard box with a pair of plastic lenses that turns your smartphone into a jerry-rigged VR device. Using compatible applications, the cardboard displays two images that — thanks to the lenses — appear as a single, three-dimensional image; if you recall the old View-Master devices, it’s the same effect. But unlike the View-Master, the image can not only be in video, but you can actually look around in all 360 degrees and the image will change as you move your head (most phones have a built-in accelerometer, which can detect which direction its facing). Combined with a decent set of wireless headphones, it can be incredibly immersive. Despite the slightly pixelated view and slow refresh time, it’s easy to trick yourself into thinking you’re looking at something real.
A screenshot of the Cardboard demoapplication; using the Cardboard viewer, these two images combine to form a single image and you don’t see the black space.
The Cardboard is available both directly through Google, but also through third party manufacturers. I upgraded from the base model to this one from MINKANAK, which I highly recommend and happens to be on sale right now (just make sure to use the NFC sticker in it; it’s important).
“Okay,” I hear you say “This sounds neat, but what can I actually do with it?” While there’s no shortage of bad VR applications, I’ve found three that are spectacular and have the added benefit of being free.
NYT VR
The NYT publishes short videos — generally, less than ten minutes long — shot using a special set of cameras that simultaneously record in all directions. As such, you can watch the video while turning your head to seamlessly change the image and direction of the sound. Repeat viewing pays off; you may well have missed something the first time because you weren’t looking in the right direction.
The subjects are rather scattershot, ranging from short films, to promotional videos, to a tour of Falluja after it was liberated from ISIS earlier this year, to a set of meditations (being told to “remember your sense of presence” while watching a video in VR was, frankly, hilarious). I particularly recommend the Falluja video, as well as “Seeking Pluto’s Frozen Heart,” “The Click Effect” (on dolphins and whales), and “Man on Spire” (a climb to the top of the Freedom Tower; not for those with a fear of heights). One thing that’s particularly nice is that the app lets you download and save the video, which means you don’t have to worry about your WiFi connection.
And yes, the idea of people looking into a device from the New York Times to see a kind of virtual reality is funny. You should make that joke, as @brianwatt has.
Google Street View
One of the slicker things Google did was allow you to access its Street View databse through the Cardboard, which lets you move and look around real places in VR. Best of all, the app lets users take their own pictures to use in the app, which may either be kept private or uploaded for the world to see. Below, is a picture I took on the porch at the Adams National Monument in Quincy, MA last weekend. If you look closely, you’ll notice some errors in the upload where lines aren’t stitched together properly, but those these are as much my fault as the app’s. However neat it make look through your browser, I promise the experience is different — and better — through the Cardboard.
What’s interesting is how this records space rather than just an image; you can — albeit, imperfectly — record what it actually felt let to be in a place, not just what it looked like from one angle. On our next vacation, I plan to use it a lot. You simply stand in one place and take a series of photographs in every direction; it helps to have a tripod, though it can work without one.
Hands down, the strangest thing I found to do with this was to photograph a room in our apartment through the app, then look at it while standing in another room. It’s profoundly disorientating when you first put it on or take it. “But wait! I but I was just over there! How did I get over here!?” my brain said.
YouTube
Yep, normal old Youtube. Using similar camera arrays as the NYT uses, some videos are actually shot or animated for viewing in VR. A particularly good example is this video with David Attenborough and a titanosaur, which you can also sort of watch in your browser.
However, you can watch any video through the Cardboard viewer. It won’t be in VR, but it’ll appear in front of you as if it was on a large screen. With headphones, it means you can watch a video in bed without disturbing your spouse (though, that’s also sort of weird). It doesn’t currently work with Netflix or Hulu, both of which require you to use proprietary headsets, though that may be for the best.
Published in Science & Technology
Dude, did you really just talk about virtual reality in the same post as “a box of checks”?
Ah, now color me intrigued. The high-end VR tech has a lot of issues to sort out, but bargain-basement VR can be mass produced and provide an established user base that can be exploited when the high-end VR finally goes mainstream.
Exactly. The educational potential is enormous.
I’m super excited to dive into VR. I plan on eventually getting a Playstation VR either when it comes down in price or I can space it out far enough from the Playstation Pro and 4K-HDR TV I want to upgrade to.
This might be perfect to tide me over. I hope it will work on my Galaxy S4… I tend to lag technology by several years.
It should.
I’m waiting for at least the 2nd generation of advanced VR systems (PSVR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive) before giving it a shot. There are both hardware and software issues that need to be worked out. And the high end is still too expensive for too limited content.
This low-end VR (Google Cardboard, Samsung VR) offers a lot more content for a much cheaper entry price, more befitting experimental development. But I’ve held off that as well because it quickly drains the battery life of smartphones.
That wouldn’t be such a problem if Samsung didn’t stupidly make Galaxy S6 batteries difficult to replace.
There are countless affordable phone-holding VR headsets these days. I’d welcome other recommendations from VR users on Ricochet.
I think my wife got that same delivery a little while back, and I fooled around with it a little. I watched (is that even the right word?) a video from the viewpoint of a shark cage under water. It was neat to turn around and look up and down and have the view change accordingly. Various sea creatures happened by and I could turn and follow them. Interesting stuff.
A recurring theme in professional reviews of the more advanced VR software is the sense of scale. Compare seeing trees on a TV versus actually standing next to one and looking up.
VR can offer that experience with places you could never visit (because of limited travel income or opportunities), creatures and things you could never see (dinosaurs, dragons, extinct ancient cities, historical objects), or restricting environments (underwater, thin mountain air, crippling desert heat, active battlefields). Among many other applications, VR has the potential to offer museums without limits.
The potential for casual exploration will be fulfilled quickly. The potential for cinematic and game experiences is more challenging. The latter require new paradigms of audience interplay (what role a viewer plays in the experience and how to enable the viewer/player to direct events).
Yes. It’s often stated (and entirely true) that a photograph can’t capture the sense of scale you get at the Grand Canyon. While a VR headset isn’t the same as actually being there at all, it can give you that sense.
Microsoft announced not long ago that it is working with multiple hardware developers to provide VR headsets for Windows 10 devices.
That’s great news for anyone curious about their upcoming (code-named) “Project Scorpio” gaming console, which will be significantly more powerful than the PS4 Pro and probably at a cheaper price than VR-capable PCs. Microsoft hasn’t yet confirmed that the Scorpio will be VR-capable. If it is, the competition between related VR headsets will be good for consumers.
The sense of scale and proximity in VR works both ways. Little objects can be immersive as well.
A beautiful Playstation VR game called Robinson: The Journey (a compelling world but less interesting as a game, so I’ve heard) tasks players at times with climbing trees while bugs crawl inches from the player-character’s face. In this case, the player’s heart races not just because looking down “feels” like a long drop, but because those little bugs seem closer than they would in a TV experience.
Conversely, many PSVR gamers are thrilled by opportunities to get within petting distance of a prehistoric herbivore or to swim with colorful reef fish.
What I’d like is a simple $20 usb headset that your can plug into your PC and just go with it. Nothing fancy, just an entry-level VR unit. Is there some sort of stereoscopic VR standard out there?
For Mr. Robot fans, there is a nice VR scene available on google cardboard of the first date between the Elliot and the girl across the hall.
I think the google cardboard stuff is cool (you can do google maps at some touristy spots and “walk” around) but it seems to get old quick. My father bought some for the grandkids. We were amazed for a few days and then never picked them up again. My firm sent out a version of google cardboard, I got back into for a day (when I discovered the Mr Robot scene) and never picked it up again.
A colleague and I often discuss the usefulness of VR for sporting events. He argues that for most people, watching TV is a social event, and most people will not want to put on googles to wall off everyone else in the room to watch a sporting event. For video games though, there are some amazing applications.
Heh. One of the trippier sensations with it is waiving your hand in front of your face while you watch a video.
“Hey, where’s my hand!?”
I imagine there are or will be apps that let you do this with your phone. Given that it has all the other necessary equipment (screen, accelerometer, sound, etc) there’s little reason for a cheap designated device.
I’m not familiar with any cheap PC-based VR systems. The cheap VR right now uses a smartphone as both processor and display.
PC devices, like Oculus and HTC, require more than the average laptop for now. But it makes sense to me that there could be more of a middle ground between $1000+ gaming PCs and $100 phone cases. @danhanson would probably know more.
The Playstation VR is today’s middle ground. It’s $400 for the headset, another $150 for the necessary camera and recommended Move controllers, plus hundreds more if you don’t already own a Playstation 4.
That’s too much for entry-level entertainment / education. But the industry’s just getting started, so prices will improve in the years to come.
I just got a Google Pixel today. Your vr image above worked seamlessly. Unbelievable.
so this is from google maps…. you weren’t actually in Quincy, MA. .. right? Just ordered from the link you provided.
I have gross depth perception deficiency, eyes don’t process together at the same time, I use one eye for short stuff the other for long stuff. A bit unusual.
Wonder if it will work with my vision issues…
COOL!
I took the photos that created that specific image and uploaded them to google maps.
Soon, prescription lens attachments for individual eyes will be available for some VR headsets, if not already.
If you already wear prescription glasses, many VR headsets leave sufficent room to be worn over glasses.
So you stood in one spot with the VR stuff on and turned around in a circle?
no glasses, had lasik, just gross depth perception deficiency…. When I was diagnosed… I didn’t believe the doctor, made him retest me…. but instead of having a depth perception my brain compensates by visual clues. In science class looking through a presetup microscope that was pointing to a cell structure, I would have to close one eye to see the pointer, as it was only on one side…
Here is what I posted on Facebook and what I quipped about it, that Tom is alluding to:
Not quite.
To do this, I opened the Google Street View app on my iPhone, and selected the camera button. Then, without using the VR headset you follow the instructions, which have you take a series of pictures in all directions. It then stitches them together and saves the mosiac on your phone. You then have the option of keeping the pictures locally, or publishing them to Google.
Here’s what it looks like on your phone as you start to take the pictures:
And here’s what you end up with (this is picture I uploaded to Google).
A couple of months ago, I started playing around with the Google Cardboard stuff, and liked it immediately.
Then, I went to the Microsoft store and tried out their HTC Vive system.
So I bought one.
My PC was good enough to run the headset and the roomscale hardware. I was hooked. Then, I decided I needed more, so I bought a much faster computer (i7 6700K and a 1070, for those interested), and set up the Vive in the back room.
I just spent an hour in Google Earth VR. It’s amazing. Flying around the planet, looking at all sorts of places I’d heard of but never “seen.” Tooling around Manhattan at Cloverfield height, zipping around Japan finding the real-life settings of some of my favorite anime, looking up at the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, staring across the Straits of Gibraltar from both sides, standing on the peak of Everest…
Then there’s a neat little art program called Tilt Brush. Painting in 3D. With paint, and watercolors, and smoke, and lightning.
Another is SoundStage. Set up your virtual music studio, and synths and sequencers and recorders pop into existence with a wave of your hand.
The immersion is incredible. Yes, the system has limitations (needs more resolution, for one), but once you’re “in” VR, you don’t notice the flaws.
(I also bought a 360 degree camera – the Ricoh Theta. Very cool by itself.)
Ricoh Theta should be a sponsor at Ricochet!
Can you share the paintings?