No, this is not an April Fools joke come very late from Google. I thought the same thing. It is real. Google engineers have developed a cardboard viewer that lets you hold your phone to your face to simulate a virtual reality headset. Seems strange? We didn’t see this coming either. The app and companion viewer are called Google Cardboard. It came from a 20% time project at Google. Sundar Pichai showed it off during the Google I/O keynote.
Since virtual reality headsets are usually very expensive and difficult to make, I guess Google figured they could do better and offer one that anyone can have. It is very simple. The whole setup only requires five items. Google has posted the instructions if you want to make one.
You will need some cardboard, velcro, magnets, rubber bands, and lenses to make this VR headset. The lenses are the most difficult part to get, everything else is easy. The whole setup costs about $50 to build. Once you have your headset built, you can download the Cardboard app which will display content split on the phone so that you see it as a single image through the headset.
To start with, the app will let you fly around in Google Earth, take a tour of a famous place, study art works from all angles, take a Street Vue trip, look at a photo sphere that you’ve shot, etc. More is sure to come later.
Source Phone Arena
