Google Cardboard VR is Gone

I used to recommend these in classes.   Still have some around, somewhere ....  Too bad.  Downward trend in VR signaled?   

Google stops selling its Cardboard VR goggles after seven years

The affordable headset helped bring virtual reality to the masses.

By Saqib Shah   S. Shah|03.03.21   @eightiethmnt  in Engadget

Google has officially bid farewell to Cardboard, its cheap gateway into the world of mobile virtual reality. The goggles are no longer available on the company's online store, reports Android Police. The writing was already on the wall for Cardboard back in 2019, when Google announced it was shifting to an open source model that would let developers create VR experiences that supported the $15 headset. By then, it had also abandoned its higher-tier Daydream View goggles, with Samsung following a similar route, that signalled to many that the tech giants were through with smartphone-based VR.  ... "   

Cardboard VR is Open Sourced

Played with Cardboard VR early on.  Surprised a bit that Google has backed off the idea, an indication that they don't believe the process is currently viable?  They are still keeping a finger in the process.

Google open-sources Cardboard to keep ‘no-frills’ VR widely available  BY Jeffrey Horwitz in Venturebeat

Google may have canned Daydream VR and poured cold water on both its Cardboard viewers and VR SDK, but it doesn’t want to see the “no-frills, accessible-to-everyone” VR project go to waste. So the company today announced that it’s open-sourcing Cardboard’s software in hopes that third-party developers will continue to support the platform and its apps.  ...  "

More about:   Cardboard VR

And the Verge follows:
  Phone-based VR is officially over ....        By Adi Robertson  @thedextriarchy

Google's Trippy VR Experiment

Google and their deep dream experiment.

" ... Google's latest VR experiment involves feeding footage captured by its 360-degree camera rig through the DeepDream machine. Since the company's DeepDream program uses a neural network to transform ordinary images into surrealistic, dream-like artwork, the result is a psychedelic virtual reality experience. If you'll recall, the big G's 360-degree VR platform is called Jump, and it uses a 16-camera circular rig co-designed by GoPro. Google has been uploading videos taken with the rig on YouTube for a while now, but this particular experiment is something new. .... " 

More Virtual Reality Consumer Engagement

Kellogg sponsors Captain America VR game
Kellogg is capitalizing on the box office success of "Captain America: Civil War" by sponsoring a mobile virtual reality game. Loyalty program members who make purchases from partner outlets can receive a Marvel-branded cardboard VR headset. .... " 

Still find the use of VR viewers uncommon among consumers.

New Google Glass

In CWorld: Look at the possible evolution of Google Glass, and likely competitors.  Still just attentive (and intrusive)  rather than VR  immersive.

More on the NYT's VR

More details of the apparent success of this test.  Also about some of the production differences required for producing VR content.   How do you get advertisers to try this?  When is it appropriate and engaging?  Beyond just novel.   In Adage: 

How Mini, GE, Google and The NY Times Created a Watershed Moment for Virtual Reality ... Publisher Delivered One Million Google Cardboard Devices and Plans More

The New York Times' virtual reality app was downloaded more times in its first four days than any Times app before, and viewers spent an impressive average of nearly 15 minutes using it, according to the Times. That's a welcome result for the involved players, which spent unusual time, energy and money trying to achieve liftoff with a nascent consumer technology.

The project was the biggest ever for Cardboard, the VR viewer from Google that is literally made mostly from cardboard plus two plastic lenses. Its largest prior effort came last July, when Google distributed 100,000 of the devices on behalf of AT&T for the "It Can Wait" campaign against texting and driving. Last weekend, around 1 million Cardboard viewers landed on the doorsteps of Times home-delivery subscribers along with the paper.  ... " 

Report on the NYT Virtual Reality App

Had my doubts about this.  But is a new kind of photo journalism and means to tell a story.  Is product placement next?  How do you determine the place for VR casts?  A means to introduce many to the VR idea.  Have not seen it,  plan to. A positive review:

Virtual reality in reality: The NY Times app makes a difference
Offering a compelling and important news feature can turn the Google Cardboard VR viewer from a toy into a important aid to storytelling. .... " 

Virtual Coffee Plantation

Use of VR to market an underlying industry, here coffee growing by Nescafe.  A simple VR method is used:  Cardboard VR, with the assistance of Google.   To explain to the interested consumer the underlying business. Might work better yet to do it for DIY retail where you have to show the shopper they could really do the project that is being suggested.   Will become useful as more consumers are used to virtual reality.  And with the integration of VR methods with operating systems, as is being suggested with MS Hololens

Improved Cardboard VR

In Engadget:   Better cardboard.  Works for larger phones.  Also includes the system working on IOS systems.  Easy to try.

" .... Google brought virtual reality to the masses cheaply with Cardboard, a DIY headset announced at last year's I/O conference. Now, the search giant's building upon its 1 million VR viewers with an improved Cardboard headset that fits smartphone screens up to 6 inches. It also incorporates a new top-mounted button that replaces the finicky magnetic ring so that Cardboard works with any phone. ... " 

Google Cardboard VR on IOS

Loaded the Google cardboard VR App just now available for IOS.   A year after its original App announcement. Not enough content yet,  some review negatives, but getting there. Viewers start at about $20.  Worth it to at least demonstrate the basic idea of smartphone based Virtual and Augmented Reality .   More in Fortune article.  The Cardboard VR site.

Google to Update its Cardboard VR

This experiment showed how very simple Virtual Reality (VR)  could be  delivered very cheaply, even with a cardboard device.  The approach works, demonstrates the idea well, but lacks a number of needed capabilities for real applications.   Still a good demo of the idea.   Now Google indicates new capabilities are coming.

Cardboard VR

Google develops a cardboard VR viewer (Technical).

" ... The Cardboard project aims at developing inexpensive virtual reality (VR) tools to allow everyone to enjoy VR in a simple, fun, and natural way. The VR Toolkit enables developers familiar with OpenGL to quickly start creating VR applications. The toolkit simplifies many common VR development tasks, including:

Lens distortion correction.
Head tracking.
3D calibration.
Side-by-side rendering.
Stereo geometry configuration.
User input event handling.
We're keeping the hardware and software open to encourage community participation and compatibility with VR content available elsewhere. ....  "