Virtual reality has made exciting progress over the past several years. However, developing for VR still requires expensive, specialized hardware. Thinking about how to make VR accessible to more people, a group of VR enthusiasts at Google experimented with using a smartphone to drive VR experiences.
The result is Cardboard, a no-frills enclosure that transforms a phone into a basic VR headset, and the accompanying open software toolkit that makes writing VR software as simple as building a web or mobile app.
By making it easy and inexpensive to experiment with VR, we hope to encourage developers to build the next generation of immersive digital experiences and make them available to everyone.
Swiss artist Zimoun (previously) just unveiled a large installation inside the windows of the Museo d’Arte di Lugano in Switzerland. Titled 36 Ventilators, 4.7m3 Packing Chips, the kinetic artwork relies on large fans that perpetually blow clouds of packaging peanuts against the museum’s broad windowframes. At night the effect is especially eye-popping as it appears the entire space is filled with a turbulent white sea. (via Artist Zimoun Creates a Roiling Ocean of Packaging Peanuts inside the Windows of an Art Museum | Colossal)
