Awesome Stuff: A New Approach To Smartphone VR

from the portability-maximized dept

Google Cardboard is a wonderful way to make virtual reality more accessible (you can even grab one on sale in the Insider Shop) but it still has its limitations. Today we're looking at a new twist on smartphone-powered VR: the Figment phone case with built-in viewer.

The Good

The main limitation to Cardboard-style VR rigs is that they simply aren't as powerful, immersive or responsive as headgear like the Oculus Rift — but in exchange they are affordable and mobile, with the potential to make VR (and its cousin, augmented reality) a bigger part of everyday life. However, if there's one thing that holds them back from fulfilling that potential, it's that they are bulky and somewhat ugly — portable, but not convenient enough to carry with you everywhere, and not something you can leave permanently attached to your smartphone. The Figment offers a new approach: it foregoes the boxy enclosure and embeds the most critical part — the lenses — directly into an iPhone case. The eyepiece sits flush with the back of the phone until you flip it out, at which point an aluminum arm holds the lenses in place at VR viewing distance, immediately bringing a 360-degree 3D video or an augmented reality layer to life.

Putting the lenses so close at hand unlocks the power of this type of lightweight VR as both a tool and a more common way to consume content. Setting up your Cardboard rig to check out a 3D YouTube video is a bit of a hassle that you'll only commit to on occasion; but flipping an eyepiece out of your phone hardly adds any barrier at all, and suddenly you might find yourself opening up such content on a whim.

The Bad

Obviously, the lack of a full enclosure means the Figment doesn't deliver a fully-immersive experience, and may be more suited to AR than VR on the whole. But that's a sensible sacrifice in service of the goal of portability and convenience — if and when it moves past the other key issue of only currently being available for iPhones, and as the price of full headset rigs comes down, Cardboard may start to look like an unnecessary middle ground: not as convenient as the Figment, not as immersive as the Rift.

The Content

Whether you've got a Rift or a Cardboard, or plan to get a Figment, you'll need content to enjoy. With VR becoming more widespread, a growing number of creators are working to harness its unique capabilities, and there's another Kickstarter project underway that's worth checking out: Blackout, "a virtual glimpse into the lives of strangers". It's an original virtual reality documentary based on the idea of reading the minds of fellow commuters on a stalled subway train, in which you can look around and hear thoughts based on actual interviews with real people from around the world. This sort of experimentation is what makes a new medium like VR truly exciting, so be sure to check it out.

Filed Under: augmented reality, awesome stuff, cardboard, oculus rift, virtual reality

Awesome Stuff: Maybe Awesome, But More Info Needed

from the maybe-awesome dept

• First up, we've got The Cardboard Bike. It is exactly what it says. The design is really quite impressive looking, though there's little to no information beyond that: how well does it ride? How durable is it? In fact, the project's main video is much more about how the two guys who teamed up to do this have a vision of building all sorts of things out of cardboard and "changing the world" with cardboard. It's a lovely vision, but... it seems like they skip over the first part, about convincing people that the product they're offering, the cardboard bicycle, is actually worth buying. They just keep talking about how cardboard is a "game changer" for building anything. That might be true, but if I'm buying a cardboard bicycle, convince me that the cardboard bicycle makes sense first. They admit that the whole reason they build one in the first place was because everyone said it was impossible, but then they don't explain how they get past the limitations of cardboard. They just leave you wondering. So... more information needed. They're also asking for an insane amount: $2 million. Not surprisingly, they're nowhere near that, and are closer to $30,000, though it's an IndieGoGo Flex Funding campaign, so they'll get the money even if (when) they fail to hit the target. Also, if you buy the cardboard bicycle, they say they won't ship until March of 2015. That's a long time to wait... and it suggests that the reason there's so little info is they still have a lot to figure out in terms of how to actually build this bicycle. Still... it looks cool, and it is a potentially awesome project.
• Next up, is the Wie-Phone, which they claim is the "perfect" phone. It supposedly does amazing things like providing "free communication worldwide." Their pitch says: "Free as anywhere, anytime. Free as no charges, fees, subscriptions or pre-paid cards, no roaming fees, no data plans." But they don't explain how. That seems like a massive giant question mark. They just say: "We are sorry that we cannot disclose details how everything functions, but we have to protect ourselves." That always sets of warning bells. Often (though, not always) when companies are totally secretive about key aspects of what they're selling, and claim to have done something amazing, it means that they're missing something big -- something that people would tell them if they'd just share.
  
  The phone's "design" looks potentially interesting, with things like four cameras (two front, two back) that allow you to do 3D photos and video, identical buttons on the top and bottom (so it's never "upside down") and a few other things look potentially neat as well -- but it's all renderings. No actual product. Another set of alarm bells go off. The creators claim to have built amazing phones in the past, but they can't show an actual prototype here -- just a rendered design. That's great, but it gives no suggestion at all about their ability to actually make the phone. A rendering is great, but getting from rendering to actually built involves an awful lot of challenges, and many of those challenges could necessitate big changes in the design and functionality, and they give no indication that they're aware of this. Also, it's pretty difficult to decide to buy a smartphone when you can't even see what the final design looks like. This project set a target of $225,000, but it appears that the lack of details, specifics or an actual device has kept people from being interested. At the time I write this there were less than 20 buyers and just over $2,000 raised. It is an IndieGoGo Flex Funding campaign, so they'll get the cash either way, but if they only end up with a few thousand dollars, will they ever actually be able to produce anything? More info needed...
• This last one may be the least speculative of the three projects. It's GlassUp, an augmented reality set of glasses. If that sounds like the infamous Google Glass, you're right -- though their design and focus is somewhat different. Also, kudos to the creators of GlassUp for addressing the Google Glass issue head on, pointing out that they were well into designing the product when Google announced Glass, but decided to plow ahead anyway. They highlight the differences, including that GlassUp is more a notification-only type device -- so seeing info, text messages, email, etc., and it doesn't have a camera for recording (so you don't have the "privacy" fears of Glass). Still, it does seem like there's a lot of information needed. It's not quite clear how these glasses work -- and the images mostly seem to place the glasses strategically at an angle where it's difficult to see the main data mechanism and what that part looks like, which could have a big impact on how natural these glasses actually look. They claim that they're still working on the final design, and promise that it will be small and look great, but... it would be nice to actually see what you're getting. This one is looking for $150,000 but just has a little over $6,000 as I write this. As with all of the projects in this post, it's an IndieGoGo Flex Funding project, so they get the money no matter what. Again, it's unclear what happens if they end up with so little money. Do they still go to production? Still, if you're looking for an augmented reality pair of glasses, and are willing to take on the risk, but don't want to shell out the $1500 that is the current asking price for a developer's version of Google Glass, perhaps you might want to check these guys out and see if you think it's worth the risk.

Filed Under: augmented reality, awesome stuff, bicycles, cardboard, cardboard bike, glasses, innovation, phones