VR ON THE CHEAP WITH GOOGLE CARDBOARD
Dive into VR using a smartphone and Google’s cheap-as-chips viewer.
As a taste of the potential for 360° imaging and VR, Google Cardboard is hard to beat. It’s essentially a way of turning your smartphone into a VR headset using a cheap cardboard mount, so it’s a great way to see if VR is right for you. Google Cardboard is, in fact, a two-part technology: there’s a software platform that allows developers to display VR content on the web and in iOS and Android smartphone apps; and a physical VR viewer equipped with two lenses and a slot for holding your phone. This latter component can literally be made of cardboard, although there are more robust options, too. Once activated, a Cardboard-compatible image or video is split into two on the phone’s display — one for each eye — which creates a 3D effect.
The key to Cardboard’s success is its affordability: cardboard viewers are cheap and many apps are free. A quick browse on Amazon will reveal more substantial Cardboard-compatible plastic headsets.
immersive, especially when coupled with a set of headphones for listening to any spatial audio effects that may be present.
There are essentially three ways to record 360° photos and videos: on a smartphone, using an app such as 360 Panorama or Cardboard Camera; with a dedicated 360° camera like Nikon’s KeyMission 360; or for the optimum quality, with a digital SLR. Each approach has its own pros and cons.
For fun factor and speed, a smartphone and app is the way to go. The drawback is that you have to move the phone full circle to create your 360° image, which can lead to some odd joins when the camera stitches the ends of your panorama together.
Creating a spherical 360 is even harder, so usually you’ll be limited to just a straight horizontal panorama with little in the way of vertical picture detail.
A 360° camera is the next step up in convenience, enabling you to record a photo or video with a single button press. Some cameras do this using two sensors mounted on each side of the camera body, each lens capturing a view of approximately 180° vertically and horizontally before they’re stitched together to create a spherical image. Not all ‘360’ cameras are capable of producing a full 360° vertically, though, so check the small print before you buy.
Finally, if you’ve got the time, you can shoot a 360° panorama with a ‘proper’ camera like an SLR. While this process takes longer than with a smartphone or dedicated 360° camera, the quality of the end result is worth it.
A 360° CAMERA IS A STEP UP IN CONVENIENCE, ENABLING YOU TO RECORD A PHOTO WITH A SINGLE BUTTON PRESS.