Google’s new Cardboard project turns your Android device into a makeshift VR headset

While unveiling the swag it was giving to developers at Google I/O, Sundar Pichai also announced that attendees were getting a piece of cardboard. It turns out that the piece of cardboard is a makeshift virtual reality headset. The company also released a companion app for Cardboard. Essentially, it allows you to slot your device into a cardboard viewer and look at it through a viewfinder and special lenses.

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.

Google hopes that this simple and affordable concept will encourage developers to attempt at writing VR software and eventually making it as simple as building a web app or mobile app.

If you weren’t lucky enough to attend I/O and receive your own piece of cardboard to build a VR headset with, Google’s Cardboard website tells you how to build one with your cardboard. Heres’ the full list of things you can do with a piece of cardboard paired with Google’s new Cardboard app, available now on the Play Store.

• Earth: Fly where your fancy takes you on Google Earth.
• Tour Guide: Visit Versailles with a local guide.
• YouTube: Watch popular YouTube videos on a massive screen.
• Exhibit: Examine cultural artifacts from every angle.
• Photo Sphere: Look around the photo spheres you’ve captured.
• Street Vue: Drive through Paris on a summer day.
• Windy Day: Follow the story (and the hat) in this interactive animated short from Spotlight Stories.