RESEARCH stereoscopics

Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics) is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. Most stereoscopic methods present two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. These two-dimensional images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3D depth. 

In the 19th Century, it was realized that stereoscopic images provided an opportunity for people to experience places and things far away, and many tour sets were produced, and books were published allowing people to learn about geography, science, history, and other subjects. Such uses continued till the mid 20th Century, with the Keystone View Company producing cards into the 1960s.








ABOVE: Brewster-type portable stereoscopic visor, J. Fleury - Hermagis, 1870. Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Milan.

ABOVE: View of Boston, c. 1860; an early stereoscopic card for viewing a scene from nature

Google Cardboard is a virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google for use with a head mount for a smartphone. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer, the platform is intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and development in VR applications.[1][2] Users can either build their own viewer from simple, low-cost components using specifications published by Google, or purchase a pre-manufactured one. The viewer is used by placing a smartphone into the back of it and viewing through the lenses in the front.

The platform was created by David Coz and Damien Henry, Google engineers at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris, in their 20% "Innovation Time Off".[3] It was introduced at the Google I/O 2014 developers conference, where a Cardboard viewer was given away to all attendees. The Cardboard software development kit (SDK) is available for the Android and iOS operating systems; the SDK's VR View allows developers to embed VR content on the web as well as in their mobile apps.[4]

Through January 2016, over 5 million Cardboard viewers had shipped and over 1,000 compatible applications had been published. Following the success of the Cardboard platform, Google announced an enhanced VR platform, Daydream, at Google I/O 2016.

ABOVE: Google cardboard, a phone is incerted (orange object far right) turning it into a virtual reality headset

ABOVE: The VR box headset, just a fancier version of the google cardboard, works the same way. The quality of the lenses is superior tho.