If you’re wondering at all about all these different devices that can somehow do VR with your phone—check out these videos to give you a nice overview of a few of them. These are some great videos that talk about important aspects of the different headsets.
Personally I haven’t been terribly interested in Mobile VR. The great thing about VR is the presence, and these devices mostly just don’t have the specs to create that amazing feeling of reality that you can get on the Rift DK1.
However, I was curious, and these videos point out some great uses. I think it could be fun to have a cardboard to take to events and share the experience in a more easy to setup, quick and dirty way. So maybe one of these is in my future after all, now that I’ve looked into it more.
From an interaction design perspective, most of these devices have a single built-in button, which is really interesting, but the Samsung Gear VR has an actual trackpad. While the fragmentation of inputs gives me a headache just thinking about it, it could be cool to have these to really explore these more simplified control schemes. It’s also informative if you’re thinking of making a cross platform application. A single-button design can more easily go across both desktop and mobile platforms. Interesting stuff!
Check them out and let me know what you think!