Google and Mattel are holding a press event today to announce a new product that merges Google’s experimental Cardboard virtual reality platform with Mattel’s classic View-Master toy. Also announced at the event: Mattel plans to bring the new View-Master toy and with it Google’s Cardboard platform to the iPhone by the end of the year.
First announced in June of last year, the Cardboard platform utilizes an inexpensive VR headset constructed from cardboard to provide a virtual reality-like experience for Android apps. While the platform has been Android-only up until now, Mattel announced today that its new View-Master based on the Cardboard platform will come to other mobile devices such as iOS. It’s unclear if Google too will open up its own Cardboard hardware to iPhone users, but it appears it will at least let its hardware partners building VR headsets for the platform do so.
Mattel said it planned to have an iOS version by Christmas and that it had no plans to use any other platform besides Cardboard but Google, who wants to sell Android devices, would not announce an iOS version of Cardboard today. However by the above transitive property they effectively have with this Mattel launch.
There have, however, been DIY solutions for getting Google Cardboard up and running on iPhones using virtual reality iOS apps that are already for the most part compatible with the platform.
We have full coverage live from the event over on our sister site 9to5Google.
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An idea I have is a virtual reality tour of any national parks. Nothing replaces going and seeing the beautiful parks in reality, but the actual reality is, 99.9% of people will never get to experience any given park in real life. Ergo it would be phenomenal to allot people the ability to experience them through virtual reality. I also imagine a time when you have a device or room which can project lifelike environments all around you…anything you can imagine, or desire. For example, a moonlit night at a lake, if you could just transform your room into this virtually, it would be amazing.
For reference (and for UK users seeking one that’s compatible with the 6+) the kit I used was this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00S7R0UIA . But there are others that should be virtually identical, and just as good.
The rest of Google Cardboard is just an app, and similar apps have been written for iOS. The official Google Cardboard app hasn’t been ported (yet?) but there are several on the App Store that do similar things… just search for “google cardboard†or “sbs 3d†(side-by-side 3d, the technology it uses, just like the original view-master but with more interactivity).
Cardboard is only a toy, a novelty for parties and showing off to friends, and it won’t last forever. But it genuinely works, and surprisingly well. The effect is seriously immersive â€" it makes me even more hungry for the Oculus Rift retail version!