From Cardboard to Daydream - The Evolution of VR on Android

1. From Cardboard to
DayDream
The Evolution of VR on Android
Oscar Salguero
@OscarSalguero

2. Agenda
(No Demo) (Code Walkthrough & Demo)

3. Cardboard

4. Cardboard
● Created by David Coz and Damien Henry, Google
engineers at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris, in
their 20% "Innovation Time Off"
● A VR Viewer for your smartphone made of cardboard,
plastic focal lenses, capacitive tape
● Introduced in Google I/O 2014
● Cardboard allows us to experience virtual reality in a
simple, fun, and affordable way

5. Cardboard is Open
● Specs for cardboard viewers were
released to the public and since
then multiple vendors have
created an infinity of viewers
● All the intel on how to create a
cardboard app are out there in the
Internet

6. Cardboard has evolved (1.0 vs 2.0)

7. Cardboard Innovations - JUMP
● JUMP: VR Video in 360 degrees
● JUMP Assembler: Camera software that
stitches video from multiple cameras to
create immersive VR content.
● The JUMP camera rig holds 16 GoPro
cameras.
● Youtube + JUMP
● GoPro Odyssey: Based on JUMP. Makes
16 HERO4 cameras act as one,
frame-level synchronization.

8. Video
Want more videos?
Watch my Google VR Playlist!

9. Cardboard Innovations - Expeditions
● Tools for teachers to take classes to
virtual field trips
● 1 million students have been taken to
expeditions in the last year alone

10. Cardboard Innovations - Apps
Street View

11. Cardboard Innovations - Apps
Star Wars VR

12. Cardboard Innovations - Apps
Proton Pulse

13. Cardboard Innovations - Apps
Roller Coaster VR

14. Cardboard Innovations - Apps
Beer Box

15. Daydream

17. Daydream-ready
phones

20. Headset &
Controller

22. The
Controller

23. Daydream Apps

24. Daydream Home

25. Play Store

26. App Listing

27. Daydream
VR App

28. The
Controller

29. Video
Want more videos?
Watch my Google VR Playlist!

30. ● High quality content with narrative
● Presence: all your senses lineup to make
you feel “YOU ARE THERE”, spatial audio
immersion will help a lot.
● Live environment refreshing at 60fps all day
every day
Daydream’s Experience

31. Daydream’s Experience
● Engage users beyond novelty
● Users: Longer and more extensive than the
apps available for Cardboard... 30+ min
session while the user is at home.
● Let users try your experience
● Single purchase to unlock the entire
experience

32. Daydream’s Experience
● Controller: Broad and expressive gesture
vocabulary, point, inspect, swing or move
objects, 3rd person character control, flying,
etc...
● Not only for VR, think AR, MR and “beyond
reality”

33. Daydream Apps
● A Daydream app is an app that is completely 3D, there are
no 2D flows, no navigation bar, soft button bar or status bar
● A hybrid app contains both 2D and Daydream
experiences

34. Submitting DayDream Apps for Review
8. Stable horizon line
9. Users initiate movement
10. Honestly represent content
11. App uses the Daydream
Controller
12. App has a VR Icon
13. App has a 360 photosphere
screenshot
1. App installs and runs (no crashes)
2. Does the app maintains 60 FPS
over long periods of time on a
Daydream-ready phone?
3. Never go to 2D
4. App stays in landscape mode
5. Use immersive full-screen mode
6. Users can focus on elements
7. App maintains head tracking

35. What should you create?
● Keep in mind that we are pretty early and VR experiences
are evolving…
● Relaxing VS Exciting experiences?
● VR Genres? (still being explored and created)
● Your imagination is the limit!

36. Dev Kit Setup and Code

37. Setting Up the Dev Kit
1. A Nexus 5X or 6P (your headset phone)
2. The latest Android N Preview, Android SDK
and NDK
3. A spare phone that will be your controller
(an old Nexus 5 with KitKat will do)
4. Download controllerpaint.apk and install it
on the headset phone

38. Setting Up the Dev Kit
5. Download controller_emulator.apk and
install it in the controller phone
6. Set up some permissions and Bluetooth
connections (more here)
7. You are good to go!

39. Code Walkthrough
The code is on GitHub.

40. Demo (Sorta...)
This presentation is available at:
https://goo.gl/X4s4nP

41. Questions?
This presentation is available at:
https://goo.gl/X4s4nP

42. Thank You!
Oscar Salguero
@OscarSalguero