How to make virtual reality glasses for a smartphone with your own hands. How to make an HTC Vive from virtual reality glasses for a cardboard smartphone with your own hands How to make virtual reality glasses for a PC

Many smartphone users have heard, but due to their high cost, they could not afford such a purchase. However, quite quickly people realized that all the sensors that function in glasses virtual reality, are also found in ordinary smartphones, thanks to which you can easily make excellent VR glasses from them with your own hands, you just need to attach a very ordinary case and a few lenses.

In fact, all the designs of glasses that you can find on the Internet are made on the basis of drawings (from English “cardboard”), and the only difference is in the source materials. Some people are happy with cardboard of any thickness found at home, others go to the office supply store for thinner ones, and some craftsmen have distinguished themselves by making their VR devices from metal, polycarbonate, foam plastic and other foam materials.

The lucky owners of 3D printers immediately began printing the template. Using this pattern, it’s easy to understand how to make virtual reality glasses with your own hands, and we will help you with this by giving some tips.

Using an ordinary knife, a pair of magnifying glasses and cardboard, you can make a resemblance of an ordinary smartphone with your own hands. However, many people don’t know how to make virtual reality glasses from a smartphone, which is why they buy expensive models or order cardboard kits, like Google Cardboard.

The design of homemade glasses has several advantages over a custom-made case, because the lenses in it can be moved along an axis that is located relative to the screen. Thanks to this, virtual reality glasses can be finely adjusted to the vision characteristics of any user.

To make 3D glasses for a smartphone with your own hands, you need to:

Measure the diameter of the lenses you will need. To do this, you need to place your smartphone on a stable, flat surface and turn on the virtual reality application on it. Look at the screen through the lenses while adjusting the distance. This way you will not only understand what lenses you need, but also decide on the focal length.
Next, try to either design a cardboard box yourself, which will serve as the body, or download a scan from the Internet. The main thing is that the bottom of the body is not as long as its top, because do not forget about the hole for the nose. Make ledges for your smartphone to rest on. Also, don’t forget about the cutouts for buttons on the sides of the phone.
Paint the insides of the body black. Thanks to paint of this color, you can avoid various glares and reflections that will interfere with concentrating on viewing.

Another option for making glasses for a smartphone with your own hands:

1). For thicker cardboard, it is better to take a stationery knife; it is more convenient for them to work directly on top of the sheet. If you want to assemble the glasses manually by inserting the keys, then you need to cut out the cardboard along with them, as in the picture. If your homemade glasses virtual reality will be subsequently glued together, then there is no need to leave such a reserve.

2). Next, you will need 2 lenses, preferably biconvex. Google recommends taking lenses with a diameter of 25 mm. The focal length of the lenses should be 45 mm. Craftsmen even take lenses from hardware stores, and some video bloggers on Youtube, when making 3D glasses for a smartphone with their own hands, use improvised means instead of lenses.

So, for example, you can cut from a regular plastic bottle 4 identical circles, glue them together 2 pieces with a blowtorch, leaving a small distance at the top. Then water from the tap is drawn into the syringe, the space between the biconvex “lenses” made of plastic is filled with it, then the remaining gap is also sealed, and in your hands you find yourself with almost completed home-assembled virtual reality glasses.

3). Some smartphone models support magnetic switching, which allows you to control the device without removing it from the box. To implement such an idea you will need simple system magnets: neodymium ring and ceramic disk with a diameter of about 19 mm and a thickness of about 3 mm. But even without them, all control will be simple and convenient; it is enough to make a hole for your finger in the design of homemade virtual reality glasses on the bottom or side.

4). When almost everything is ready, all that remains is to solve the problem of attaching the smartphone to the glasses. To do this, you can use a rubber ring and 2 Velcro strips (approximately 20x30 mm) to secure the cover.

DIY virtual reality glasses for smartphones: frequently asked questions

— Is it really possible to do it yourself? virtual glasses for a smartphone, which will be convenient?

For regular use, of course, it is better to purchase inexpensive but comfortable glasses with a factory mount, for example, or more expensive and high-quality ones, etc. Do-it-yourself VR glasses for a smartphone are more likely to be suitable as a device for the first acquaintance with virtuality.

— How to make virtual reality glasses from a smartphone if you have never done anything like this?

This is where the Google Cardboard drawing, widely circulated on the Internet, and our article come to the rescue. Even if you don’t succeed the first time, don’t be discouraged, because the materials are practically free, and homemade virtual reality glasses for a smartphone can be modified at any time. For example, follow the example of those who made them from ceiling tiles - light and invisible, they can easily withstand the weight of a smartphone.

— How to make virtual reality glasses for a phone that does not have an accelerometer?

Unfortunately, such glasses will not be able to support operation correctly.

So, we can say that making VR glasses for a smartphone with your own hands is quite simple; the whole question is the ease of use of such a device. Indeed, in addition to glasses, quite a lot of devices are now being produced in the world for a deeper immersion into virtuality, with which viewing photos and videos becomes an entire adventure, and games do not allow you to relax for a second, keeping you in suspense.

For example, virtual reality in controller gloves allows you to touch objects as if in reality, and some VR chairs almost instantly react to the movements of your head, turning your body in the same direction. The future is very close, you just need to feel it.

Perhaps this video will help you:

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So, you have downloaded and tried the methods described above, and have chosen the one most suitable for you personally. fast work. Let's agree that you have a smartphone or tablet with a 6-7" diagonal, two pairs of lenses (you can try with one pair, but my scheme is still two, discrepancies are possible, use at your discretion), installed programs and purchased materials from tools. The first step will be to make the first frame for the first pair of lenses. I made it from polystyrene foam, and in theory, it would be nice to have a centrifuge on hand, even for concrete, which is used to cut sockets, but in general, any type of sliding cutter for wood will do. or even a compass. I didn’t have any of this on hand, so I had to cut out the round holes with a Walter White stationery knife, which, with a lens diameter smaller than mine, would be completely untidy. So, the first blank is a frame for two lenses, as shown. picture below.

In order to make it, you will need to place the smartphone on the table with the screen up, lean over it, and taking the lenses in your hands, bring them to your eyes, trying to find the focal length. You need to strive for the minimum distance between your face and the screen, so that it fits into the “lens” and the 3D effect is observed. If this effect is not observed, is shifted or distorted, do not despair; first, it will be enough to understand the focal length, or more precisely, the amount by which you need to remove the lenses from the smartphone. What about the distance between the lenses in this pair? It's simple - find the value that is halfway between the distance between the pupils and the distance between the centers of the halves of the frame (half the long side of the screen). Let's say we have 65 mm between our eyes, and the screen is 135 mm, half of it is 67.5 mm, which means you need to place the centers of the lenses at approximately 66 mm, for a first approximation this is enough.

Now, after we have marked the required distances, we cut out the holes for the lenses. Having approximately estimated the density of the foam, I considered that it was enough to firmly install the lens; if I made a hole for it with a diameter slightly smaller than the lens itself, I reduced the cut circle by 2 mm in diameter, which coincided perfectly with the assumption. Your parameters may be different, but the essence is the same - make the holes a little smaller. You need to recess the lens shallowly, I recessed it by 2 mm, below it will be clear why, and there is probably no need to mention that it would be nice to place the lenses in the same plane, that is, they should both be recessed evenly.

The first stage is completed, now we have a mock-up of the screen-to-lens distance, and we can move on. Remember what I said about two pairs of lenses? They may not be that important in an optical sense (they actually are), but they are invaluable for further tuning. Let's say you installed the first pair of lenses as described above, turned on a 3D image (game, movie, your choice) on your smartphone, and are trying to find three-dimensionality. One pair of lenses did not allow me to do this at once. But when I brought the second pair to my eyes and, after playing with the distances, found the desired position, a three-dimensional image immediately appeared on the screen. To achieve this, you need to simultaneously move the lenses relative to the screen, in a plane parallel to this screen and the first pair of lenses, up and down and to the sides. Find a detail in the image that you can use to track the parallax effect, focus on it and try to connect the images in each eye so that they match. With some skill, this can be done very quickly, but, unfortunately, I cannot tell you a way to speed up this process. This test stand helped me, here the lower pair of lenses is already in foam plastic and adjusted to the screen, and the upper pair, framed in polyethylene, and each lens separately, I moved in front of my eyes, in search of “stereo”, and under the entire structure - screen at the desired height:

Sooner or later you will get fresh, juicy, fashionable youth 3D, but due to the introduction of a second optical pair into the circuit, the first focus setting will be a little off. There is no need to be scared, all that is required is to reconfigure the focus again. To do this, you first need to make a frame for the second pair of lenses you just adjusted. My advice is to first copy your first frame adjusted for the changed distance between the lenses, and then visually estimate the distance between the first and second pair of lenses after you have adjusted the three-dimensionality. It will be enough by eye, and this distance should be compared with the thickness of the material - well, literally, whether the distance between the pairs is greater or less than the thickness of the foam. If it’s less, everything is simple, you will need to install the lenses in the second frame a little deeper, by the required amount, but if this distance is greater than the thickness of the foam, you can simply turn the first frame over with the more recessed side facing you, so you don’t have to fence a garden made of spacers between two frames. In my case, this is what happened, I turned the first frame the other way around, folded these frames with their more recessed sides facing each other, and recessed the lenses slightly inward on each side.

So, we have an optical device that allows us to view 3D on a smartphone screen. But, of course, we remember about the focus, which was changed first by introducing a second pair of lenses, and then by turning the first pair over to the other side, so the focus needs to be adjusted again. When, through simple movements, you catch the focus, you will need to notice this distance, and make foam supports of such a height that by installing your first frame above the screen, the image in the lenses will be focused.

Here it is necessary to say the following, in my opinion important property, I’m not exactly sure of its nature, but I’ve observed it several times in experimental subjects. Many activities in life require repeated approaches, approximation, and iteration. This, apparently, is not clear to everyone, but this method almost always works, and gives better results if you follow a simple algorithm - try and improve. In the case of this helmet, it’s the same story, perhaps you won’t be able to make two correct pairs of frames the first time, for example, I remade one pair three times, and the second twice, and I already know that I will redo it again, because there are ideas for improvements. But with each rework, the quality increased and the picture became better, so if you made a couple of approaches, but “nothing worked out” for you, don’t despair, take a break and start again, continue. The result is worth it.

A small hint - if the resulting eyepiece (as I will call a block of two pairs of lenses and their frames, assembled together) has a good stereo image, but the focal length has increased significantly relative to the first approximations, disassemble the eyepiece in half into two frames and play with the distances, perhaps there will be a more optimal one - maybe you will need to turn one of the eyepieces the other way around, or maybe space them further away from each other. We remember what needs to be achieved maximum quantity useful pixels (otherwise it will be uninformative) and the minimum distance from the screen (otherwise it will be cumbersome). If you have a wonderful, wonderful focal length, but for some reason the stereo base is not successful, carefully cut the foam plastic in the middle between the lenses with a knife and look - you need to move them apart, or bring them closer together, and then act according to the situation. Roughly speaking, you will have two eyepieces, one for each eye, adjust them, and when it works, glue them together with double-sided tape.

At this stage, the story with the lenses ends, and now it doesn’t matter whether you made the optical design according to my version, or based on your own considerations, then it won’t be so important, the rest of the story is suitable for any option.

Helmet prototype assembly

Having found the total focal length from the eyepiece to the screen, we have to make a box on its base, and here there are even more options than at the lens stage. But, now you have in your hands the “heart”, or rather the “eyes” of the device, and its most complex part, which means that it will be easier in the future. Let's say you managed to do everything described above correctly, and you can confidently observe the 3D image by placing the eyepieces to your eyes and leaning over your smartphone. After playing around with this demo layout a lot, you will probably notice some features of the placement of lenses and the convenience of eyepieces, which you personally find most in need of optimization. Don’t limit yourself too much, optimize and improve something for yourself, for your vision, the shape of your nose and skull, and so on.

For example, after making the eyepiece, I applied it to my face and realized that I had touched it to a foam brick. There is absolutely zero convenience, and you still have to wear this helmet on your head for some time! Therefore, when making the box, I tried to increase the wearing comfort while simultaneously placing the smartphone securely and conveniently inside. I had to get rid of inside polystyrene foam, and replace it with foamed polyethylene, it is in the picture yellow. It is more flexible and allows the shape to be twisted within a wide range, which is why the inner surface of the helmet is made of it. It should fit snugly to the face in the area of the eyes and around the nose, otherwise you will constantly observe fogging of the lenses from breathing, immediately take this point into account. There was an idea to make this part from a construction or swimming mask, but I didn’t have any at hand, so I did it myself, however, the option with a ready-made mask may seem preferable to you, and I happily recommend it. I myself decided to also make the sides for the helmet adjacent to the head.

Another point worth remembering is the weight of the smartphone and the lever on which it will work, exerting pressure on the support. My Xperia Ultra weighs 212 grams, and the required distance at which it is removed from the face is 85 mm, plus the own weight of the box - all this together, I would say, makes the helmet comfortable with reservations. It has one strap at the back, this will be visible in the picture at the end of the section, this strap is made of a rubber band, 40mm wide, which pulls it quite tightly to the back of the head, but if the screen was heavier, or the lever was larger (read focal length longer) - it would have been possible to wear a helmet would be much more difficult. So for owners of devices with a larger diagonal or weight, I advise you to immediately think through a mounting scheme on the head with a second, transverse strap from the bridge of the nose to the back of the head, it will be more convenient and safer.

Also, at this stage you will need to think about one more nuance - sound output. I have several pairs of headphones, both closed and open, there are earbuds and so on, but after thinking about it, I did not build a helmet around the large and comfortable Sony MDRs with large ear pads, but chose simple earphones. Perhaps it will be critical for you to make a helmet with a cool sound, in which case you need to immediately imagine how exactly you will articulate the headphones, their arch and the helmet with its mount. I had such a temptation, which quickly evaporated at the prototyping stage, but I will definitely return to it in the next, improved version of the helmet, if I decide to make it. In any case, you will need a hole in the helmet body that matches the position of the audio output of your smartphone.

So, I have this device on my desk - an eyepiece with an inner surface slightly adjusted to the shape of the head. It already fits comfortably on the face, fits the width, and to make it I only needed this template, cut from a piece of foam curved to the shape of the head; it will fit, with some adjustments, to both the top and bottom of the helmet:

Previously, we found out the focal length of the eyepiece in several approaches. Now you need to position the smartphone screen at the required distance. Remember that the screen must be positioned so that its horizontal axis of symmetry coincides in height with the imaginary line between the pupils, but the fact that it must be positioned symmetrically relative to the face is already clear to you. In my case, the distance between the screen and the side of the eyepiece closest to it was 43 mm, so I made the top and bottom surfaces from foam, as well as two side inserts. The result was a foam plastic box, which, once placed on the screen, could be used for its intended purpose, which is where the template shown above was needed.

At this stage there were several small adjustments to the focusing and positioning of the smartphone, after that - accurate measurement of the results obtained and cutting of the outer, cardboard case. It serves two purposes - it protects the rather delicate foam from mechanical damage, I quite easily pressed it with my fingers at the stage of initial experiments, I had to keep an eye on this, and the second and main goal is that the cardboard will hold the screen in the desired position, pressing it against the foam.

The result is a box with a lid on the top front, under which the smartphone is hidden.

Having tried the helmet on my head, and having seen enough of all kinds of 3D, I corrected minor inconveniences inside the helmet, and made a fastening - an elastic band to the head. It is simply sewn together with a ring and glued with double-sided tape to the cardboard, plus it is secured on top with a silver oracle, which was used to replace the tape. The result was something like this:

By the way, this image shows another technical hole, which is used to connect a USB cable, which we will need a little later. And this is what the helmet looks like on the head of the test subject who donated the lenses for this helmet:

So what happened in the end?
Dimensions: 184x190x124 mm
Curb weight: 380 grams
USB input/output
3.5mm headphone jack
Useful screen area 142x75 mm
Resolution 1920x1020 pixels

It's time to move on to the program part of our journey.

Available features of the VR helmet

Watching 3D video

The very first thing that comes to mind is watching movies in 3D. This is a very simple and understandable entry point into virtual reality, although, more strictly speaking, it is rather a threshold not far from it, the previous step. But, in order not to detract from the merits of this type of entertainment, I inform you that watching 3D movies in the resulting helmet is a very interesting and fun activity. I've only watched two films, so I'm not fed up yet, but the feeling is very good: imagine that you are one and a half meters from the wall that you are looking directly at. Without turning your head, try to look around the area around you - this will be the screen available to you. Yes, the resolution is small - each eye gets only 960x540 pixels from a fullHD film, but nevertheless it leaves a quite noticeable impression.

To watch movies in this form, you will need a free MX Player player with a codec installed for your processor, I have it ARMv7 Neon, and, in fact, a video file. You can easily find them on all kinds of torrent trackers, the technology is called Side-By-Side or SBS for short, feel free to search using these keywords. The player has the ability to adjust the aspect ratio of the video being played, which is extremely useful for SBS files, which otherwise stretch vertically to fill the entire screen. In my case, I needed to go to settings - “screen” - “aspect” and selecting “manually” to set the aspect ratio to 18 to 4, otherwise you will get vertically elongated images. I tried to look for other players with similar functionality, but I couldn’t find them, if you know, add them to your knowledge base.

In general, I have nothing more to add to this point - an ordinary 3D cinema is in front of your eyes, everything is very similar to going to the cinema, or watching on a 3D TV with polarized glasses, for example, but at the same time there are differences, in general, if you love 3D, you should try a VR helmet.

Android applications for Durovis Dive and similar systems

This whole story actually began from this point. Basically, the following three links show almost all possible programs for Android at the moment:
www.divegames.com/games.html
www.refugio3d.net/downloads
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo

What do we need to experience virtual reality comfortably? Obviously - a joystick, or any other controller, for example - a wireless keyboard. In my case, with a Sony smartphone, the natural and logical choice is the native and natively supported controller from the PS3, but since I didn’t have one on hand, but the good old Genius MaxFire G-12U, I added an adapter from microUSB to USB to it , hooked it up to my smartphone, and was not even surprised that it immediately began working both in the device interface and in individual programs without any questions.

You will also need headphones, because immersion in virtual reality without sound will be incomplete. I have these ordinary plugs, and you can figure out for yourself which is more convenient.

What should you expect and what should you not expect from the applications presented in this section? The fact is that all applications in general that are written for Android on the topic of virtual reality are very meager, to put it mildly. If you run them without a helmet and try, well, to see what kind of virtuality this is, then there is a chance that you will not want to buy or make a helmet. They are frankly very crude and miserable, and do not represent anything super-interesting.

But. When you put your head in the helmet, everything becomes completely different, and personally, I, skeptical of everything, would never believe it, but nevertheless it is so.

The main thing to consider is head movement tracking. Even with poor implementation, or slowdowns, this is a completely new and unexplored field of sensations, believe me, before the advent of the helmet, you had not felt anything like this for a very long time, since the times of adventures with rock climbers in the mountains, walks along the bottom of the oceans, overnight stays in the forest and other massive murders that we all love so much. The helmet provides a completely unrealistic sense of reality, I apologize for the pun, and any, even the poorest graphics will seem like candy inside it, in general, I must say - if you like to play games, or experience new things, the helmet is the device for you.

From my own experience: imagine that you are in 1998, and, say, a Polish production studio computer games I made a demo in which you landed on the moon, exited the module, saw the canonical American flag, looking like a piece of cardboard nailed to a stick, stuck in the ground, and above the flag in the sky there was an inscription in the sky in an extremely poor font “gather your tools, 3 pieces left.” At the same time, the graphics are made up of very, very simple elements, where the monotonously copied starry sky and the square-repeating soil under your feet occupy 98% of the usable screen area, and somewhere a couple of pixels of those “tools” that you have to find are visible. Not really. You can already see them, you just need to walk to them for 10 minutes. Just go. By the moon. No sound. By repeating sprites. No action at all.

Tell me, after how many seconds would you delete this game from your computer or even your smartphone? That's it. And wearing a helmet, this miracle allows you to experience (!) devastation and loneliness the only person on the planet. No joke. After 15 minutes of playing, I found myself desperately afraid that I was alone on the Moon, under the cover of the stars, and it was completely unknown what to do.

More or less the same story with all other games and applications. They are miserable, they are creepy as hell, but at the same time inside the helmet - they send you back 15-20 years ago, and who even earlier, to the very games that they played, and not with which they spent time. So far, my only question for the developers is - why isn’t there a single game with a full-fledged plot for this scenario? A single game would save the situation incredibly, because now, showing people virtual reality on Android, there’s nothing special to show, everything with the reservations “this is a demo, you can’t shoot here,” and “that’s it, the whole game is completed, yes, in 4 minutes." By the way, almost all of these applications are written in Unity, which makes them all the more surprising low level, or I don't know how to search.

But don’t listen to me anyway, try it yourself and tell me your version, I’m interested. And season it with links, I will do it immensely. For example, I even installed a demo with the outrageous name Toilet Simulator. Because.

A small easter egg

In fact, on the Durovis Dive website there is a link to Quake 2, a demo version of the game that can be installed on Android and has the ability to display SBS mode, at the bottom of this page - detailed instructions how to do it. The only thing that didn’t work in automatic mode was that a separate archive was not unpacked, so there will be links to mirrors in the settings of the running game, you need to retype one of them into the browser on your desktop, download the self-extracting archive, pull out the pak0.pak file from there and paste it to the directory of the game installed on the phone, I have it called baseq2.

After that, the same Q2 started up for me without problems - it works very quickly, and everything is clearly visible. It became scary after literally 30 seconds, a chill down the spine, but I won’t describe it further, try it yourself. It was not possible to take a screenshot, unfortunately, and the joystick currently only works in the “wander” mode, it can’t shoot, you’ll have to tinker with the settings.

Thus, all this sluggishness of Android developers (attention Android developers!) led me to the thought - well, there are no games for Android - let's try a desktop computer, keeping in mind the main advantages of a virtual helmet - a huge screen with immersive image and position tracking heads, and try not to lose them.

Connecting to a computer as a VR device

To be honest, the idea of such a connection appeared immediately, but there was not a single idea of how, what and in what order to do it. Therefore, while I was drawing, cutting and gluing parts, I was simultaneously thinking about where to get information on how to display an image from a computer’s video card, while simultaneously transferring head tracking, that is, gyroscope and accelerometer data to the computer. And all this, preferably with minimal delay.

And you know, a solution was found. It consists of three stages, each of which we will consider separately, and first I will describe the working options, and then I will go through those that turned out to be ineffective in my case, but may be useful to you.

We create 3D output on a computer.

It turned out to be relatively simple, but without knowing right away, you can get lost. So, the ideal computer that allows you to play full-fledged 3D games in stereo output format has a video card based on conventional NVidia or ATI chips, the more modern the better, and, what is very important, the drivers have the ability to configure an arbitrary resolution. If you have a laptop (my case) or a video card whose drivers do not support arbitrary resolutions, the image in the helmet will be elongated vertically, and possible solution, unsafe and quite tedious - digging into the registry and registering permissions there. Your suggestions, again, are warmly welcome!

In general, you will need to install a version of the video card drivers that supports arbitrary resolutions. If your smartphone and your monitor each have 1920x1080 pixels on the screen, then everything is very simple - in the video card settings you need to create an arbitrary resolution of 1920x540, and then apply it to the monitor. You will see how work area the screen became smaller in height and located in the middle of the screen. If the picture on your screen is something like this, then you did everything right:

So, everything was tested on a regular but powerful desktop computer with an NVidia video card and latest version drivers. It is important that the conditions are met - when running the game in stereo mode, the image on each half of the frame is not elongated.

The second thing you need is to download the 3D driver - which has a full trial version for a period of two weeks, and allows you to output 3D images to peripheral devices in arbitrary configurations, side-by-side, top-bottom, and anaglyph, in basically, whatever you want.

Install in the usual way, run the TriDef 3D Display Setup utility and select the Side-by-side option, now when you launch games from this driver, they will be in stereo mode “each eye has half a frame.” If you have games installed, then you can open the TriDef 3D Ignition utility and search for installed games, a shortcut to your game will appear in the window - voila, you can use it.

I didn’t have any games installed, so I installed Steam and bought Portal 2 for 99 rubles on sale, but this is an advertisement. And here comes a point that you need to be aware of - the driver that serves stereo output can output stereo for any game that can be launched in full screen, but cannot create output for a window whose area is smaller than the size of the desktop. Remember this point, below it will become critical, like a red rag to a bull.

In general, if the drivers are installed and configured, the game is purchased and launched, and it all looks something like this on the screen:

You can move on to the next stage.

Transferring an image from a computer to a smartphone screen

There are several ways here, and judging by the numerous icons in the market, there are not so few programs that allow you to convey what is required. I was “lucky” before I found a convenient and workable application, I tried several other, depressing and frustrating hacks from Google Play, and I’m sorry that they put any slag there. I spent more time searching and setting up applications than making the device. Moreover, I had to buy one of the applications, and everything would have been fine with it, if everything had not been bad. But first things first: you will definitely need a local Wi-Fi connection between your computer and smartphone.

You will also need a good and fast "remote desktop" that does not log you out of your account on the desktop when logging in via remote control. Such a program turned out to be the free Splashtop, and the half-paid iDisplay was also found.

The one that is paid - everything is fine with it, only it did not allow placing the screen cropped at the top and bottom exactly in the middle of the display, so I had to abandon it, but overall it works well, there was even a review on Habré, where I got it from. But Splashtop worked as it should, so install it.

All programs of this type work in approximately the same way - you need to download and install the host version for your desktop, and the receiver version for your smartphone. I think there won’t be any problems with this, so I won’t describe these processes, it only takes about five minutes of work - downloaded, installed, registered, configured, connected. The only thing I will mention is that you will need to go into the settings and indicate that your wireless connection needs to be used locally, for which you will need to explicitly specify the IP of your computer in the Android version, you can find out this address using the ipconfig utility in command line. Actually, these are all the settings, everything should already work, here, for example, is a screenshot from a smartphone at the moment:

If you launch the game from the 3D Ignition utility, it will appear on the screen of your smartphone at the same time as it will appear on the monitor. Or not. Because here lies the hottest pitfall of our history, and yes, you will laugh as much as I did. Watch out for sleight of hand: the driver that displays a stereo image from the game requires full screen (if you select the “windowed” mode, stereo will not work, the game will launch normally), and the program for accessing the desktop from your smartphone screams “I can’t” launch fullscreen, sorry, yes, absolutely,” and can only show the desktop and the windows on it.

Therefore, the most subtle point. Most likely, you will be able to play any games that run in borderless window mode. I don’t know for sure why and where such a mode exists in games, for this reason, or for some other - but it turned out to be a salvation: on the one hand, it deceives the desktop and tells it that it launched the game in full screen, and on the other hand, it formally displays only a window on the smartphone, albeit without frames and expanded to fill the entire screen. This is the same case when the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe.

So I was lucky, Portal-2, which I downloaded from Steam, turned out to be exactly the game that supports all three launch modes. So you just have to check at your own discretion which games will launch this way and which won’t.

Now you can launch the game and play it wearing a helmet. But, as they say, the picture would be incomplete if there were no head movement tracking.

Connecting head tracking

You have read this far, for which I congratulate you. I don’t want to deceive you, this point is the most complex and least studied, however, do not despair. So.

The first thought was to “disassemble” the Oculus Rift SDK or Durovis Dive SDK, since the source code is publicly available. Perhaps this should have been done, but I am not a programmer, and I don’t understand anything about this. Therefore, my gaze was turned to ready-made solutions that transfer the position of the smartphone in space to the desktop. As it turns out, there is simply a gigantic number of programs that supposedly can do this. Judging by the descriptions, almost everything is like that. And again, I went through dozens of programs with sweet promises, but in reality it was even more scary, disgusting and wretched than going through programs to display images on the screen of a smartphone, and what’s more, even more wretched than those demo games for Durovis Dive, which I described above. If at this stage you catch a wave of frustration, then that’s it, “goodbye helmet.” Nevertheless, the necessary (with reservations) program was found. But first, a fly in the ointment - Monect, UControl, Ultimate Mouse, Ultimate Gamepad, Sensor Mouse - all this did not work. Especially the first one on this list - the description says that Monect Portable provides a mode

FPS mode - Using gyroscope to aim the target just like a real gun in your hand, perfect support COD serial!

As a result, I bought it for a fabulous 60 rubles, but this turned out to be untrue. This mode simply does not exist in the application! I was angry.

But let's move on to successful options. You will again need to download the host and client version of the program called DroidPad. It was she who, when setting up one of the modes, made it possible to do the necessary and transmit the parameters of the sensors in real time via wireless access. The algorithm is as follows: install the program on your desktop and smartphone, launch it on the smartphone, select the “Mouse - Mouse using device tilting” mode, and then launch its desktop version.

If everything is done in this order, the connection should work, and voila - you control the mouse cursor on the computer screen! So far it’s chaotic and chaotic, but wait, we’ll set it up now. In my case, in the Android version of the application, the screenshot of the settings window looks like this:

You can set the name of the device, but it’s better not to touch the port - it works by default, but it’s better not to touch what works for now. In the desktop version, everything is a little more complicated, my settings are like this, but they still need to be optimized, so use them only as a guide, nothing more:

Here are the X and Y axis settings on the computer screen, and the sensor strength from the phone. How exactly this all works is still a black box for me, because the application developers do not provide any documentation, so I provide the information “as is”. I completely forgot to add that I have a program installed on my smartphone that controls the launch of applications in landscape or portrait orientation, and all the applications that were tested for this venture were tested in landscape mode. The application is called Rotation Manager, and auto-rotation of the screen is globally disabled on the smartphone.

Having configured your applications accordingly, you will need to connect your smartphone to the computer according to the algorithm described earlier (for me, any discrepancy with the specified order leads to the termination of the application), and, holding the smartphone in your hand as it will be located inside the helmet, try to configure the settings - alternately adjusting the desktop sliders and clicking on the “Calibrate” button in the Android version window. I’ll say right away - after quite a few attempts, I managed to adjust the angles and turns relatively decently, but then, while adjusting more precisely, I lost those settings without thinking about taking a photo of them, and those that are now in the screenshot are only an approximation to the previous ones that were It still feels better. One more thing - all these sliders are very sensitive, and holding the smartphone in one position in your hand so that it does not move the cursor arbitrarily is inconvenient, so you constantly have to disconnect and configure, then connect and check. After some time, the information in the article on this subject will be updated, but even with the current settings - inside the game world it looks very impressive.

So, how does it feel? On at the moment Due to lack of time, I have installed the games Portal 2 and the free robot shooter HAWKEN, offered by Steam. As for the portal, you are quickly enslaved by the surrounding atmosphere and sound, and the immersion is so strong that there is nothing to compare it with, except maybe sitting in front of the computer 10 years ago at four in the morning, everything is perceived about as acutely. But if there it was fatigue and darkness around, then in the helmet it was a slightly different, brighter effect of the same presence. But the second game, where you sit in the canonical “huge humanoid robot”, surprised me. If you have a helmet on your head, reality, projected as if onto the surface of the helmet in the game, becomes closer, warmer and brighter, and very quickly. Amazingly fast.

You shouldn’t assume that the sensations caused by a VR helmet will be the same for everyone, but based on all the “guinea pigs” I can confidently say that absolutely everyone appreciated this device, the reviews are extremely positive and interested. Therefore, I confidently recommend that you spend one day making this helmet and judge for yourself. My personal goal was exactly this - to quickly satisfy my curiosity, without specially wasting money and time on waiting. I spent about three days of searching and setting everything up, and now I’m passing the baton to you, in a condensed form.

Personally, I decided that I would most likely make a second version of this helmet, with minor modifications and improvements, and subsequently purchase the latest consumer version of the Oculus Rift. It turned out to be very interesting and informative.

I’m really looking forward to new applications for Android, and partly this article was written with the hope that one of the developers will become interested and reveal some interesting stuff for everyone to see. And, a small wish - if you know any programs and solutions that I did not mention, but which would expand the quality of the article and improve the performance of the device - write about them in the comments, and I will definitely add valuable information to the article for future generations.

TL;DR: the article describes a fast and high-quality method for making a virtual reality helmet based on an HD smartphone or tablet with Android on board, complete step by step instructions And general principles this process, and also describes the main available methods Applications of the resulting helmet: watching movies in 3D format, games and applications for Android, and connecting the helmet to a computer to immerse yourself in the reality of desktop 3D games.

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Turning your smartphone into excellent quality virtual reality glasses is not at all difficult. To do this, you don’t need to buy any expensive devices; it’s enough to show ingenuity using improvised means. We have compiled a small guide for you: “How to make virtual reality glasses.” For virtual reality glasses, a touchscreen phone running Android 4.1 and higher, iOS 7 and higher, and Windows Phone 7.0 and higher is used.

We make our own virtual reality glasses.

To make virtual reality glasses you will need: cardboard, scissors, a utility knife, paper glue, a printer, 2 flat-convex lenses, Velcro (which is used in clothing), a smartphone.

Tools for making virtual reality glasses ©Computerworld

Tools for making virtual reality glasses and a blank template. ©Computerworld

It is very important that the display is at least 4.5 inches. The phone must be equipped with an accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope. In the absence of a gyroscope and accelerometer, virtual reality cannot be assessed.

Next you will need a sheet of cardboard. It is advisable to take micro-corrugated cardboard, which is often used to make various containers (pizza packaging is ideal). You also need a template for cutting out glasses, printed on A4 sheet, and you will need three sheets. This template can be easily found on the Internet.

Pizza cardboard for virtual reality glasses ©Computerworld

You can download the template on the official website, at the bottom of the page you will find the Built It Yourself block and click the Download Instructions: Cardboard button

Or the Russian version: Cardboard

Template for virtual reality glasses ©Computerworld

You also need two lenses, namely aspherical lenses with a diameter of 25 mm with a focal length of 45 mm. These lenses can be purchased at an optical store or ordered online.
Note that the larger the focal length, the further the phone should be removed from the lens. If you don’t know the focal length, you will have to create a device that adjusts the distance of the lens from the smartphone.

Cut out glasses from cardboard according to the template ©Computerworld

Among other things, you need magnets. One round magnet is inserted inside the structure, and the other is attached outside. The second magnet is held in place by the magnetic field of the first magnet. When interacting with the virtual world, the magnet must be moved downwards with your finger and then returned back.
Also, to create VR glasses you will need Velcro for clothing. Such Velcro is sold in any fabric store at a cheap price. Finally, you will need a utility knife and double-sided tape.

Now you need to print the template and glue it to the cardboard. Then the parts are cut out and the necessary cuts are made. Then Velcro is attached to the left and right sides so that the structure does not move apart. It is recommended to cover glasses with foam rubber in places of contact with the eyes.
DIY virtual reality glasses made from recycled cardboard:

As we can see, making VR glasses yourself is absolutely not difficult. The main thing here is to have all the necessary details and follow the steps consistently. You can also buy virtual reality glasses for a small amount on Amazon, Ebay or Aliexpressand assemble them yourself.

Collecting Cardboard virtual reality glasses:

Due to the growing popularity of VR technologies, many people want to join them. Today there are many different variations and models of devices on sale in different price categories. Nevertheless, some users, out of curiosity or in order to save money, are wondering how to make virtual reality glasses with their own hands from cardboard or plastic (which is more difficult)?

This option is suitable, first of all, for those who have a modern smartphone with a large screen and a built-in set of sensors (more about the required sensors below). According to statistics, a considerable part of the world’s population uses such devices. Thus, with insignificant monetary and certain time costs, the user can make excellent three-dimensional glasses with his own hands. We will look at what is needed for this and how all the parts are assembled below.

An interesting point is that the simplified design made of cardboard and simple lenses even produces and distributes Google company, they are called Cardboard. Their VR glasses, even in a similar design, are available in several versions that are not difficult to replicate at home.

Moreover, the company itself has made all the necessary information publicly available.

Thus, there is no need to talk about the relevance of the issue under consideration.

What you need to assemble VR glasses at home

Before, worry about materials and constituent components future glasses, you should make sure that your smartphone technology matches. The phone settings must provide comfortable work with 3D films, games and other virtual reality projects.

Suitable for such purposes, for example:

Android 4.1 JellyBean or better
iOS 7 or higher
Windows Phone 7.0 and so on

The screen diagonal must be at least 4.5 inches for comfortable and full operation of all applications.

What sensors are needed:

Magnetometer, that is, a digital compass
Accelerometer
Gyroscope

The last two conditions are required for most virtual applications, otherwise, the user will only be able to view . Without these two components, it is not possible to fully evaluate VR technology.

It should be noted that for self-made no need for expensive or rare components. So now let's move on to the list necessary materials for making VR glasses with your own hands at home:

Cardboard. It is recommended to use the most dense and at the same time thin variations, for example corrugated cardboard. The cardboard must be in the form of a single sheet with dimensions of at least 22x56 cm and a thickness of no more than 3 mm.
Lenses. Most the best option There will be the use of biconvex aspherical lenses with a focal length of 40-45 mm and 25 mm in diameter. It is recommended to use a glass option instead of plastic.
Magnets. You will need two magnets: a neodymium in the form of a ring and a ceramic in the form of a disk. The dimensions should be 19 mm in diameter and 3 mm in thickness. As a replacement, you can use ordinary food foil. Alternatively, you can use a full mechanical button.
Velcro i.e. textile fastener. This material requires two strips of approximately 20-30 mm each.
Rubber. The length of the elastic should be at least 8cm, since it will be used to secure the smartphone.

In addition to materials, you will also need some tools: ruler, scissors, glue. Based on your capabilities and ingenuity, some materials and tools can be replaced with alternative options, if this does not affect functionality.

As you already understand, materials and tools alone will not be enough to manufacture, much less assemble, an entire structure. Of course, this requires a drawing or simply a template diagram for creating virtual reality glasses.

You can find a template for cutting out glasses below. It can be easily printed and then pasted onto a piece of cardboard. Since the expanded version of the glasses goes beyond the usual landscape format (and is 3 sheets of A4 format), then you will have to carefully and accurately combine all the fragments at the joints.

To download the template to your computer, you need to right-click on the picture, and then click on the item "Save Image As".

3 parts template

Below you will see 3 large pictures that will need to be printed and then glued onto cardboard so that all the joints are respected.

The finished result on cardboard

This is the final result that you should get by connecting 3 parts of A4 sheet on cardboard.

Cut out cardboard design

This is what we got after we completely cut out the cardboard according to the drawing. Carefully follow the numbers and connect all the parts correctly.

Where to get glasses lenses

In the matter under consideration, it is the lenses that are the most difficult to access component. If you can’t find them in nearby stores and retail outlets, you can search on the Internet.

Among the available and most likely places that may offer such a product for sale are the following:

Shops in the “Optics” category. Here the product is measured in dimensions - dioptre, and for glasses you will need lenses of at least +22 dioptres.
Stationery stores. Magnifiers (i.e. magnifying glasses) are sold here, tenfold lenses should work as an alternative.
Search on domestic sites and trading platforms, or at foreign online auctions.
Make it from a plastic bottle (more details in the video instructions)

In the event that the lenses received by the user differ to a certain extent from the specified standard, it will be necessary to either grind the lenses themselves or make appropriate adjustments to the design of the glasses. Often the problem can be solved by including in your design a device for adjusting the distance from the smartphone to the lens.

How to make glasses without lenses

Those who imagine the option of creating VR glasses without lenses can immediately forget about it. Without special lenses, the resulting design will be no different from regular glasses or glass. No practical benefit such a design will not bring anything, unless it can be used to create a cinema effect.

Step-by-step instructions on how to make virtual reality glasses with your own hands from cardboard

So, when the user has all the materials, tools and a printed template, then assembly can begin.

First step

Paste the template onto the cardboard
Cut along the contour
Bend and fasten individual places

The first step is to glue the drawing onto a sheet of cardboard. The main thing is to be careful and maintain accuracy at the joints so that the dimensions are not distorted. Then all elements must be carefully cut along the contour. From the special marks on the drawing it will be clear in which places the structure needs to be bent and in which it needs to be fastened.

Second step

Insert lenses into the finished structure
Magnet fastener
Lining cardboard with foam

Next, you need to insert lenses into the already assembled frame, and, if necessary, fix them to increase the reliability of the fastener. Then a strip of foil or magnets is glued to create something like a control button.

To increase the comfort of using the resulting device, in places of contact with the head, the surface can be covered with foam rubber or other softening material.

Video instructions

Certain points from the given algorithm of actions for assembling the structure in question may be incomprehensible or cause difficulties. In this case, you can familiarize yourself with the visual and step-by-step execution of all actions in the attached video instructions.

This is a fairly simple and cheap option that will satisfy the needs of a wide range of users. After everything works out for you, do not forget to read the article about how to use it comfortably.

You still don’t know how to make a virtual reality helmet? Then you are at the right place! Today we will craft VR glasses called google cardboard. It was developed by Google engineers to bring this technology to the masses. And its design is so simple that any schoolchild can assemble it without spending a penny. Because it is made of cardboard and lenses taken from office magnifiers.

On the market in lately A huge number of devices have appeared for viewing content in VR mode. Today only the lazy do not produce such devices. The most famous of them are Oculus Rift, Sony Playstation VR, Samsung Gear, HTC Vive and many others.

But Google, as always, is ahead of the rest. They were able to make glasses from simple cardboard and a pair of lenses, and posted the drawings in the public domain so that everyone at home on their knees could assemble such a device. For this, the box from Google gained incredible popularity.

Video: how to make virtual reality glasses with your own hands

How does a virtual reality headset work?

IN full version two OLED displays are installed. The video on them is transmitted from the computer via cable and processed by the built-in processor. Two lenses focus the image from two screens into one, creating an immersive effect. The following are responsible for movement in space: a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a magnetometer. And the infrared tracker is located in front of the player on the table; it is used in games and allows you to determine the person’s position in space.

Mobile glasses work on the same principle. But instead of electronic components and screens, a telephone is used. On the screen of which two synchronous images are displayed. And smartphone sensors are responsible for orientation in space.

How to make a google cardboard with your own hands

Everything is much simpler than it seems. If you have cardboard in the house and a couple of small magnifying glasses lying around, and you have an Android or iOS device, then you can craft a cardboard helmet with your own hands in half an hour.

Will be needed

Drawing
Cardboard size 60x40 cm.
Two lenses with a diameter of 25mm
Smartphone

Additionally, you will need a few more components that you can do without.

Velcro for fixation (can be bought at a sewing store or removed from clothing)
Neodymium ring and disk ceramic magnets (diameter 19 mm and thickness 3 mm)
NFC sticker for interacting with your phone

How to assemble?

Print drawing
Glue on cardboard
Cut and assemble the box as in the picture
Remove the lenses from the magnifying glass and insert them into the box.
Launch a game or video in VR mode
Insert your smartphone into the box and enjoy

Google cardboard drawing

The body of Google glasses is made of cardboard, but no one prohibits the use of other materials: plastic, glass, wood or polymers for 3D printing. All you have to do is download the drawing and cut out the body using it.

Lenses for google cardboard helmet

Lenses for a homemade virtual reality helmet can be bought on the Internet or pulled out from office magnifiers, binoculars, or made yourself (in Jules Verne’s book “The Mysterious Island,” Cyrus Smith glued two watch glasses with clay, filled them with water and got magnifying glass to light a fire). Main parameters:

Biconvex
Diameter 25mm
Focal length 45mm
Multiplicity 5-7x
Made from glass for clear images

Step by step instructions

1. Print the template.

2. Cut and glue the blanks onto cardboard. The minimum height of the cardboard is 40cm, so as not to glue parts of the body together. It’s better to take a size of 60x40 cm, all the parts will fit on it.

3. Cut out the box layout.

4. Assemble a button that will press the screen. Glue the cut out button as shown in the diagram, and use a strip of food foil as a conductor.

5. Insert the lenses into the prepared holes and secure them with tape or “super glue”.

6. The drawing shows the places where it is necessary to glue Velcro, with the help of which the box is assembled without the use of glue or tape. But we don’t always have Velcro on hand, so we’ll use good old tape.

7. Assemble the cardboard box.

8. Launch the content on your smartphone and install it in the box. VOILA ready!

Another advantage of this option is that you can style it to suit yourself.

Content

At the moment, there is a lot of content for VR glasses on the Internet. And big companies are making incredible investments in the development of this technology. So there will definitely be no shortage of content.