The recent announcement of the Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer has caught my interest, as well as the interest of a bunch of other people. So, I’ve been doing a little reading up to try and figure out exactly what the best way for me to approach this would be.

First, I installed the >Cardboard Demo on my phone. Even without a proper viewer it is fairly interesting. Next, I started looking at getting a viewer. My brother had shared a link to a kit from DodoCase for $25 which comes with everything you need. Unfortunately, they say to allow four to six weeks for delivery. The Google documentation includes a pattern you can print to make a viewer yourself. I was figuring I’d try that out at work next week. The biggest issue is finding the right lenses.

The documentation suggests the Durovis OpenDive Lens Kit. It costs about $20. This led me to look at Dive. Dive appears to be an already manufactured VR viewer for cellphones. It costs 57 Euros and ships from Germany. They say their estimated delivery time is 10 to 15 business days, perhaps longer if there are issues with customs.

Their Open Dive How To includes STL files for printing with a 3D printer. Perhaps I will try that at work. They also mention a Snakebyte iDroid:con Rechargeable Bluetooth Game Controller for Android and iOS Devices. They recommend this for VR games that need a controller. It costs $23 and I don’t see a need for it, yet.

Dive uses the Dive Launcher It is also worth playing with and has an interesting interface, even without a proper viewer. It seems similar to the Google Cardboard app and I wonder how much things will interoperate.

I continued to look for other sources for lenses and ended up in the Cardboard & VR Developers community on Google Plus.

I believe it was there that I found out about Surplus Shed which supplies surplus, used, and unused optical and electronic bargains for fun, hobby, education or profit. They mention on their front page that they have lenses for Google's new DIY Cardboard Virtual Reality Smartphone Viewer. Just $4.50 each! (Get 10 or more for just $3.50 each).

This looks like the best deal so far and I’m thinking I should get a ten pack of lenses. This would allow for making five pairs of VR glasses. I suspect that if I make a pair of VR glasses, there will be people asking how to get them.

Google Cardboard uses magnets for controlling the glasses. It is possible to get by without the magnets, which may be a good thing, because the ones that Google suggested are out of stock at both Home Depot and Amazon. They are 3/4 in. Neodymium Rare-Earth Magnet Discs. At Home Depot, a 3 pack is $5 and on Amazon a six pack is $12. Applied Magnets has magnets like these for 89 cents each. You also need 3/4 in. x 3/16 in. Ceramic Disc Magnets. HomeDepot has them available online at eight for two bucks and Amazon has them at eight for seven bucks. Applied Magnets has these magnets for 29 cents each. I should probably get five of both types of magnets from Applied Magnets.

To hold the Google Cardboard together, Google recommends two strips of adhesive backed Velcro, approximate 3/4 of an inch by 1 1/4 inch. If I make five glasses, I’d need five times as much Velcro. My guess is that we have some Velcro somewhere in our sewing supplies, either stuff that Fiona has accumulated or that came from my mother, but I don’t know if any of that is adhesive backed, or if we can find it.

Google also recommends 3 1/2 inch rubber bands. Again, that should be something we have around the house or should be able to find easily. Some of the other, non-cardboard projects also call for rubber bands like these, so it would be good to have them on hand, and probably extras in case some break.

The final, optional item that Google recommends, but isn’t required is sticker NFC tags. The one in Amazon the recommend is unavailable. It looks like the best option for these are these NFC tags. They come in five to a pack, so one pack is probably sufficient, but it would be nice to have two packs to do other NFC experiments or to use tags on different devices.

As I read more on this, I stumbled across vrase. It looks like they hope to ship a device similar to Google Cardboard or Open Dive soon. They did provide a link to the
Secondsight - Virtual Reality Headset, VR HMD that I could print at work and which I believe would use the same lenses. The person writing about also used a RII Mini Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard. That is another interesting device I should look at some time. However, there seems to be a bunch of different options, and I should explore them before deciding what to get, or how useful they really are. VRASE lists several different Bluetooth game controllers.

I also stumbled across REFUGIO3D. It is a kit which appears very similar to Google Cardboard, but only seems to be available in Germany. However, from reading through that website, I came across 3D Side By Side movies. Searching on Youtube for 3D SBS provided a lot of material.

So, lots of work to do on Virtual Reality viewers, and when I get some running, I can then think about developing code for them.