Pre-manufactured viewers were only available from third-party vendors until February 2016, when Google began selling their own through the Google Store. The headset specifications were designed by Google, which made the list of parts, schematics, and assembly instructions freely available on their website, allowing people to assemble Cardboard themselves from readily available parts. Google Cardboard headsets are built out of simple, low-cost components.

Viewer assembly and operationĪ Cardboard viewer unassembled (top) and assembled (bottom) As of November 2021, third-party companies continue to sell compatible viewers. In March 2021, the Google Store stopped selling Cardboard viewers.

Following declining interest in Cardboard, Google announced in November 2019 that it would open-source the platform's SDK. After the success of Cardboard, Google developed an enhanced VR platform, Daydream, which was launched in 2016. By November 2019, over 15 million viewer units had shipped. Through March 2017, over 160 million Cardboard-enabled app downloads were made. The Cardboard software development kit (SDK) was released 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 apps. It was introduced at the Google I/O 2014 developers conference, where a Cardboard viewer was given away to all attendees.

The platform was created by David Coz and Damien Henry, French Google engineers at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris, in their 20% ' Innovation Time Off'. To use the platform, users run Cardboard-compatible mobile apps on their phone, place it into the back of the viewer, and view content through the lenses. Users can either build their own viewer from simple, low-cost components using specifications published by Google, or purchase a pre-manufactured one. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and development in VR applications. Google Cardboard is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google. at the Wayback Machine (archived May 6, 2023) Second-generation Google Cardboard viewer

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