Google’s foray into virtual reality has involved a lot of heavy-duty paper, and even its fancy new hardware for VR is no exception. Google VP of Virtual Reality Clay Bavor tweeted a picture of an early controller prototype for the company’s Android-based VR platform, Daydream, and as you can see, it’s much more... cardboardy than the sleek controller design it unveiled at I/O 2016.
Google really likes making things out of cardboard
is executive editor who has obsessed over headlines and internet speeds since 2011. He previously worked as an advocate for the National Park System.
One of the first Daydream controller prototypes was clad in cardboard. pic.twitter.com/zyeWuQbCm7
— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) June 5, 2016
Google’s new reference design for a headset and motion controller looks much more like an Oculus Rift or Gear VR than Google Cardboard, which is literally just a $20 piece of cardboard you fold up and put your phone in. Google will be relying on partners to make its new VR equipment though, so there’s nothing stopping a company like, say, HTC, from building the new equipment out of processed wood pulp.
Seriously though, Google really likes cardboard:
Of course we made a Jump camera out of cardboard. pic.twitter.com/Y2wm7wGQ21
— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) July 21, 2015
A Millennium Falcon, made entirely out of cardboard. Respect. http://t.co/5L1xBnG5mA pic.twitter.com/wy03cf0V03
— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) July 27, 2015
I love that Amazon is innovating in cardboard boxes.
— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) September 17, 2011
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