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Google launches new Cardboard Camera app for shooting VR photos from your phone

Google is out today with an interesting new app for VR fans called Cardboard Camera for Android. The new camera app lets users shoot their very own virtual reality photos right from a smartphone. Simply launch the app, start shooting a photo and pan in a circular motion like you’re shooting a panorama image, and you’re set.

Then throw your phone in a Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer and you can experience the immersive shot as if you were back in the moment, adding a new dimension to still images.

These VR photos can also include sound, Google adds, so the experience is similar to video but more lifelike as you pan around the scene:

VR photos are three-dimensional panoramas, with slightly different views for each eye, so near things look near and far things look far. You can look around to explore the image in all directions, and even record sound with your photo to hear the moment exactly as it happened.

Google says its new free Cardboard Camera app is available in 17 languages from the Google Play Store, Cardboard viewer sold separately (even in Star Wars flavors). If you’re new to the Cardboard concept, the affordable VR kit lets you transform your smartphone into a makeshift virtual reality viewer. The new app joins existing ways to create your own virtual experiences including Google’s Photo Sphere feature. See it an action below:

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