We have new tech at the Draper household, and believe it or not, it’s made of cardboard! Not just any cardboard … Google Cardboard! And it’s taking us to some interesting (virtual reality) places.
I heard about Google Cardboard in the educational technology class I’m currently taking. After a bit of reading, I found the price was right to give it a try! So I ordered the DodoCase Virtual Reality Cardboard Toolkit V1.2.
It came in the mail Thursday, and we were a bit surprised at the DIY items that were included. Besides the obvious cardboard ingredient, the build requires a variety of small parts including various stickers and foam spacers, a metallic shield, a wood button lever (which looks a lot like a tongue depressor) and some velcro.
Note – The colorful chameleon in the picture didn’t come with the kit. He’s a permanent resident!
My dear husband is always up for a DIY challenge so he got the job of putting it all together. His only comment was, “It’s harder than it looks,” so I know it took a bit of effort. But the results were amazingly cool and no disappointment!
The viewer works by inserting your smartphone into the front and watching specially programmed 3D walk throughs, games and videos. We’ve toured Paris and seen the Bean and other landmarks in Chicago. I found YouTube videos which I can watch in 3D. They have a side-by-side view of the video which melds together to form the 3D version using the viewer. Check out my playlist. At this point there are more Android apps than iOS. We’ve tried a few on each type of device and the technology is impressive.
Next up – learning to create our own videos in this format!
