A Whole New World

It’s finally finished!

As discussed in yesterday’s post, I’ve been struggling to carve through some very dense 3mm thick cardboard to build my own Google Cardboard Virtual Reality (VR) headset. I did eventually use the Dremel to cut the details for the eye holes, there’s just no way I could cleanly cut them using a knife. Straight lines are one thing, but small circles are a whole different league! So my biggest piece of advice is to use the fluted cardboard recommended by Google, or use a Laser Cutter 😉 The only upside is that this headset feels very strong and durable, so I’m not at all worried about my phone falling out.

Some of the slots also required modification once I started to fold everything up due to the extra thickness of the cardboard. But otherwise it came together really well. I used a small bolt to hold it all together on 1 side rather than gluing so that it can easily be taken apart. And just as a final touch I used my 3D printed ‘edditive’ logo as a stamp (read a previous post about 3D printing a stamp by clicking here).

So far I’ve only watched a couple of short demo videos on Youtube using the glasses (The Matrix, 3D Canyon Coaster) but what a ride! Although I think it’s time for a new phone, I’m still using a Samsung Galaxy SII and with virtual reality you really need a much higher resolution screen – mine is extremely pixelated once you get those lenses on!

Now it’s time to take the next step and 3D print some parts to compare. I’m thinking of a possible hybrid between the Google Carboard and some of the full 3D printed headsets you can download from Thingiverse…

– Posted by James Novak