Scientifiques sans Frontieres make Google Cardboard

To celebrate the first birthday of Codec Moments, Professor Kelvin Harris and his lab assistant Brian have created their debut film to instruct you in how to make your own Virtual Reality device from the very clever bods over at Google. All the pieces you need are listed here, and expect the finished article to cost in the region of £20/$30, excluding delivery charges (we weren’t able to walk into a store and buy off the shelf, you’ll save quite a bit of cost if you can).

Sit back, relax and spend the next few minutes in the company of the Prof and Brian:

Google Cardboard is a project developed for the yearly I/O conference and allows you to turn your Android 4.1 (or above) phone into a VR device. You’ll need all the kit the Prof mentions in the video, as well as downloading the Google Cardboard app from the Play Store. It’s also worth a “VR” search in the store too because there are new supported apps being added all the time. Google Maps Streetview mode has been made compliant so you can virtually tour your own street if you don’t want to step outside; Tuscany Drive does something similar for an Italian seaside resort; and there’s even a survival horror game in the form of SpaceTerrorVR which we recommend (though you’ll need a bluetooth controller to walk about in game, very easy if you’ve got a spare DualShock 3 kicking around and the right cable).

If there’s continued support for Google Cardboard, and the other low cost VR headsets already available, we hope we’ll start to see some interesting innovations coming through for gaming and technology. We do have some reservations that it might be the same as 3D in that interest and support hasn’t really taken off as everyone hoped, but if you can build your own headset for £20 instead of throwing out £300 – £500 on something that has to be used in your living room, it’s worth giving it a go and testing the waters.

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