10 must-try experiences for Google Cardboard

Google’s Cardboard revolutionised (and made affordable) the concept of virtual reality. ET take a look at how things are developing, what the updated experiences are and highlight some of the limitations.

CARDBOARD

The free app from Google offers a collection of demos and videos, supports playback of your own videos and allows viewing of photospheres captured by you.

VRSE - VIRTUAL REALITY

This free app gives you a beautiful short video that is loaded with fantastic VR effects. There are other videos also available within the app and more are expected soon.

ORBULUS

Loaded with 360-degree photosphere images from around the world, this app shows you image previews as orbs. Look at any orb for a few seconds to view that particular image using your headset.

ROLLER COASTER VR

One of the best ways to enjoy VR is to use this free app to get the feel of riding a roller coaster. Set on a tropical island, this roller coaster ride is one of the best on the play store. You can also try the Dive City Roller Coaster app.

SISTERS

If you like horror, a free app called ‘Sisters’ is a good way to get a feel of how VR can elevate the movie experience. You are put in an old house in this spooky game to experience a ghost story.

TUSCANY DIVE

This app lets you use VR to look around a beautiful villa in Tuscany. With excellent visual and sound effects, this app is a good example on how VR can help in providing walk-around demos.

GLITCHER VR

Using the camera on your smartphone, this app shows a live view of your surrounding. You can then apply various built-in visual effects and see your surroundings change.

VR CINEMA FOR CARDBOARD

Using this app you can play videos stored on your devices in the cardboard headset and enjoy the feeling of watching a movie as if you are in a movie theatre.

CHAIR IN A ROOM

This app puts you in a locked, windowless room and you only have a few clues to help you out. If you already haven’t figured out, it puts you in the centre of a horror set piece. The developers ask heart patients to stay away.

DEBRIS DEFRAG

This simple game gives you a fair idea of the direction that VR games will take. You’re floating in space: it’s in 3D and offers beautifully rendered space environments and planets. The objective is just to fire beams at the asteroid debris using the clicker (the magnet switch). You aim by moving your head around which adds to the fun.

LIMITATIONS & PITFALLS

VR IS NOT FOR EVERYONE

People who are prone to motion sickness, those who have a history of epilepsy and people with claustrophobia or vertigo are especially prone to problems. This could mean a general feeling of uneasiness, vomiting, seizures from flashing lights and even a complete loss of consciousness

UNCONVINCING

VR aims to create a reality that looks like the real thing, but it is often unconvincing. The amount of processing and technology required to actually transport you to another location is not there yet. Even now, the best VR systems can cost upwards of several hundred US dollars.

DESENSITISATION

In the future, VR could be used as a substitute for real human interaction. Just as mobile phones, televisions, tablets and computers do today in some sense, will VR cut us off from all the things that make us human? There is a very real possibility of a strong psychological effect on us: that of ‘desensitisation’.