Saturday 6 August 2016

Virtual Reality for £3?

Oculus Rift from Google and Sony's Virtual Reality addon to PlayStation are both rumoured to be around £350 when available, so when my 8 year old came home with a £3 cardboard virtual reality goggles from Flying Tiger I wasn't expecting much. 


How wrong was I?  This thing is amazing!  Little did I know that there are already lots of free apps in the Apple App Store that work with it, just search for Virtual Reality!

It's based on Google Cardboard (https://store.google.com/product/google_cardboard) so there's lots of content from Google and others who have used their template.

When you're in a compatible app you need to tap this button to activate cardboard VR:

The image will split in two (1 picture for each eye).  For best results, you should hit the cog button and scan this QR code:

Then put your phone in this box:


And hold it up your eyes or use the elastic band (well it is £3) to secure it to your head:

Now wherever you look the image follows you!

Here's a sample from Google where you in a boat in a digital 3D ocean:

Where there's even a huge leaping, splashing whale:

What's most impressive feature of our £3 googles is the built in button which allows you to interact with the virtual world!


Already we've been looking around using Google Street View, played a load of games and looked around Rio to get a feel of the Olympic atmosphere.

All in all a bargain at £3!