Want to take a trip to Paris, but don’t have the funds? How about taking a nice romantic stroll… with Dinosaurs. A Virtual Reality headset is the way to do it.
2016, as per the many manufacturers who have jumped on board, is going to be the year of VR or Virtual Reality. There is the Oculus Rift from Oculus (now acquired by Facebook for $2 billion) releasing to the public later this month. And these guys are really the ones who figured out VR and enabled the industry to move forward.
Next, we have Samsung releasing their own device simply called Samsung Gear VR which only works with Samsung Phones. Playstation is releasing their codename Project Morpheus aka PlayStation VR. Microsoft is working on their HoloLens, and the list continues. And there are many, many more. But expect to pay hundreds of dollars and if you go with the Oculus Rift, possibly upwards of more than a grand just to get your PC in shape.
But how about something that will let you experience VR for around fifty bucks. Or even free
Enter Google Cardboard. First unveiled back in 2014, it is essentially a DIY blueprint for making a VR and augmented reality headset using easy to find things such as lenses, velcro, magnets, tape, a rubber band and of course cardboard. Oh, and you use your mobile device to power the device. And if you don’t want to bother with making the device, you can purchase pre-built headsets online. We’ve provided a few links below. These range from just $20 CDN and up depending on “paper or plastic” and other features such as the ability to adjust the lens position.
How does it work? Well, let’s first understand what are the components that make up the definition of Virtual Reality. There are two main parts. The 3D image and Head Tracking. The 3D image is pretty simple to understand. You can google “Stereoscopic 3D” to learn in more detail. But essentially, when we look at something with our eyes, each eye is looking at the same object but a slight offset. Our brain translates this data into a 3D image, and we see the world in 3D. This is what gives depth to what we view as well. Try looking at the world with one eye closed. Looks pretty flat, right? So if we can get the left eye and right eye to see different images, and those images are the same thing but at a slight offset, then our brain will translate it into a 3D image. And that’s exactly what the headset does. Because the phone gets placed so close to your eye and right in front of the lens. Each eye sees a different image and voila 3D.
You can have some fun using the cross-eye method. Look at the image below and the idea is to cross your eyes to the point you start seeing a double image. Now get the double image of the left picture and the double image of the right image to meet in the middle, so effectively you see three images. If the alignment is correct, the middle image is in 3D. Blinking may help.
I got this image from this gallery. Enjoy!
http://www.deviantart.com/tag/crosseye3d
Next part is head tracking. Which again isn’t anything to complicated. Using the phone’s built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, the phone can detect motion and essentially can translate that into where you are looking or point of view.
And software does the rest. So as you look around (wearing the headset) the image will also move with appropriate perspective. It gives you the level of immersion for you to feel that you are simply looking at things with your own eyes.
And put the two things together and you have basic Virtual Reality. And of course, this is just the beginning of things to come. Companies are already working on additional sensors and equipment that will monitor all body movements. So if you raise your hand in front of your face, you see your hand in front of your face. Kicking, in reality, translates to kicking in the VR world. And much more.
To get a taste of this on the cheap, check out the headset that we bought here.
http://www.amazon.ca/VRHeadset
Also, check out Google’s page here:
https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/
Marty McFly would be so jealous!!!
Drop comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this whole VR business and any questions you may have.
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