Google announced Google Cardboard at I/O. Since then, the device has been upgraded, and now supports the iPhone. Currently, more than 1 million users have purchased or obtained Google Cardboard.
What’s interesting about the announcement is not that Google introduced another novel gadget, but the timing of that announcement. A relatively simple concept based on an old idea in stereoscopic visual perception, Google Cardboard is now possible because of a number of converging technological developments in both hardware and software.The concept is simple – present two identical images side by side differing only slightly in lateral position on a hand-held device. The brain interprets the difference between the two visual images (i.e., disparity) as depth or 3D. This visual trick was used and exploited in the parlor games of the 19th century, and popularized in the mid-20th century. I still remember seeing and playing with a View-Master stereoscope when I was a kid.
What makes Google Cardboard and numerous other commercial examples of it possible today is the emergence and proliferation of mobile devices, specifically, smartphones. They have basically replaced physical viewing cards with high-definition displays with increasingly better performance, pixel resolution, and color rendition. Now, anyone with a smartphone and a virtual 3D app that they can download from an app store can experience a low-cost, immersive virtual experience.
Although Google Cardboard is neat, its usefulness and importance as an educational and learning tool are what make it most interesting to me. There are loads of mobile apps available out there that have been designed especially for a 3D experience, ranging from healthcare, tourism, games (of course), and education. Now, someone can experience a breathtaking virtual experience of driving a race car, flying over the Grand Canyon, exploring the Tuscan scenery, or navigating through a Mayan temple. The possibilities are virtually endless.
Sometimes, simple ideas are the ones that can make the greatest impact given the right time, place, and technological innovations.
