Google has created a really curious and low-cost new technological product that allows you to look at the smartphone screen with a 3D virtual reality effect . It is a super economical version of the Oculus Rift glasses (out in 2015), very futuristic, which allow you to play video games immersively from the screen that, in an enveloping way, completely covers the eyes.
The idea of Google Cardboard is to use a cardboard box (exact, own cardboard) with lenses (which allow you to perceive three-dimensional images), magnet and an elastic band, in which to insert the smartphone and to wear as if it were a pair of glasses (they have nothing to do with Google Glass).
Thanks to some smartphone applications designed for Google Cardboard, including Google Maps, it is possible to live a true virtual reality experience.
For example, you can open Street View in Google Maps while sitting on the sofa at home and find yourself, virtually, in front of a skyscraper that you can look at 360 degrees, as if you were really there.
A stuff for real nerds, which costs little and you can't help but try.
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The box designed by Google does not have an official manufacturer and any person can build it by following the instructions (you can find many tutorials on Google and Youtube) or buy it from independent manufacturers to do it first.
To buy a Google Cardboard just go to Amazon where there are many different models for the color, for the most refined aesthetics, with and without NFC and of different sizes to adapt any mobile phone inside, connecting to the smartphone via NFC technology.
Although the Cardboard can also be used with an iPhone, being derived from a Google project, very few compatible applications will be found on the Apple store, at least for now.
In the end I could not resist and I bought it.
The cardboard must be folded according to the instructions in order to form a box-like glasses in which the smartphone is inserted (I have a Nexus 5).
The only thing that took me a while to understand was the position of the magnet, to be stuck sideways in the space indicated.
By installing the official Google Cardboard app for Andorid, you can immediately try the Google Earth experience in virtual reality 360 degrees in 3D, Youtube seen as if you were in the cinema, a tour of Versailles that seems to be there and the photos taken with the Google camera using Photo sphere mode.
The experience is so immersive that you get a headache if you stay too long.
For Android, there is a collection of Google Cardboard apps that you can search for using the word VR as well .
Scrolling through the apps for Android you can also find different games, truly living a complete, realistic and fun 3D experience.
For example, with Google Cardboard you can open Street View on your smartphone, choose a place you would like to see, touch the screen to make the buttons appear at the top and touch the cardboard symbol, what looks like a pair of glasses.
You can then insert the phone into the virtual reality viewer and be amazed at how it really seems to be there, turning your head and body 360 degrees to look around.
On the Youtube app you can also have a 360 degree view of the videos.
Opening any video, just touch the button with three vertical dots at the top right and notice that among the options there is the one called Cardboard.
Touch on Cardboard, put the viewer and enjoy the video in three-dimensional immersion, in full virtual reality, which seems to be in the cinema.
To have a better experience, search on Youtube for " 360 Videos ", that is videos shot with 360 degree shooting, which seen with the Cardboard viewer really seems to be there, as if we were the protagonists of the video, turning the head and body to see yourself completely immersed.
The Google Cardboard app is also available for iPhone
The project, perhaps born a little for fun, is already enjoying great success, so much so that more than 500, 000 Google Cardboards have already been sold and therefore its evolution and wider development of applications with which to use them is sure.
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