Library Guides: Emerging Technology: Google Cardboard

What is Google Cardboard?

Google Cardboard is an easy-to-use virtual reality viewer made primarily from cardboard. All you need is a cell phone and a Wifi connection to get started!

Borrow It!

Click on a piece of technology to see if it's available in the library and place a hold to reserve it. Watch this video to learn how to place a hold. If the item is available, you can also come to your campus library and ask for an item to borrow it.

Google Cardboard Viewer

What does this kit include?

Virtual Reality Viewer Classroom Kit
*Available for educators only*

What does this kit include?

Getting Started

Open up your Google Cardboard and follow the steps on the inside flap to assemble it.

To start using your Google Cardboard VR Viewer, download the Cardboard app on your cell phone from your phone's app store

Follow the instructions in the app to connect your phone to the viewer. The app will ask you to scan the QR code on the side of your VR viewer. Once the code is scanned, place your phone into the front of the viewer. In the app, you can access:

Free Cardboard demos
YouTube's 360 video channel, and
Google Street View in 360 degrees

Don't want to download the app?

Start using your Google Cardboard viewer without downloading the app by following these steps:

1. Open up your Google Cardboard and follow the steps on the inside flap to assemble it.
2. Open the YouTube app on your phone.
3. Search for "virtual reality channel" in the app to find 360 degree videos
4. Pick a video on the channel and start playback
5. Tap the bottom right-hand corner of the video to view the menu. You should see an icon that looks like your Cardboard viewer
6. Tap the Cardboard icon. Now your video should split into 2 screens.
7. Insert your phone into the back of Cardboard with your screen facing the viewer's lens
8. Watch your video! Turn your head around to explore the 360 visuals

Activities

Once you've explored the VR experiences in the Google Cardboard app, check out these other VR apps:

Within
Immersive experiences from VR creators including both fiction and documentaries. Available for most VR headsets.
Google Arts and Culture
Visit over 1200 of the world's top museums and galleries and experience artifacts and works of art like never before
ExpeditionsPro
Choose from hundreds of existing tours from around the world as well as premium content from some of the world’s most prestigious content creators. With a familiar drag and drop user interface, it has never been easier to create your own 360 degree tours. You can then share them with students, colleagues, friends and the wider world. ExpeditionsPro allows cross platform use, which means users can save all their content from Google Expeditions.
VR Expeditions 2.0
Thanks to a partnership with Encyclopaedia Britannica, VR Expeditions offers high-quality, curated and tailored content, along with student hand-outs and additional teacher resources that make educators' lives easier. ather than simply having an image and going on a virtual field trip, students will be able to dive into and truly understand and research the content using these ready-made, data-rich resources. Teachers don't have to come up with a lesson to go along with the virtual images; it has already been done for them. This makes for a true educational lesson rather than just another tool that you can add.

For Educators

Borrow it!
Virtual Reality Viewer Classroom Kit
*Available for educators only

The kit, which can only be borrowed by educators, includes 30 Google Cardboard headsets.
Complete our Makerspace Equipment Booking form to reserve the kit for a specific day
All students need is a cell phone and a Wifi connection to get started.
Interested in using the Google Cardboard kit in your classroom, but not sure where to start?
Contact your Librarian, Muyi Ogunleye (mogunleye@centennialcollege.ca) for support and resources.

Use Cardboard to embed in your classroom:

Virtual reality technology
Experiential learning
International perspectives

Students can:

Immerse themselves in complex concepts & processes
Visit places they may not otherwise be able to
Gain new perspectives on art and culture
Create their own Virtual Reality experiences

Learn More

Check out these sources to learn more about creating virtual reality content for Google Cardboard

Cardboard VR Projects for Android by Jonathan Linowes & Matt Schoen
ISBN: 9781785880995
De Learn how to build practical applications for Google's popular DIY VR headset. Build a reusable VR graphics engine on top of the Cardboard Java SDK and OpenGL ES graphics libraries. The projects in this book will showcase a different aspect of Cardboard development—from 3D rendering to handling user input.
Virtual Reality Blueprints by Charles Palmer & John Williamson
ISBN: 9781786465030
Are you new to virtual reality? Do you want to create exciting interactive VR applications? There's no need to be daunted by the thought of creating interactive VR applications, it's much easier than you think with this hands-on, project-based guide that will take you through VR development essentials for desktop and mobile-based games and applications.

Virtual Reality Viewers in Action

Students in the Emerging Tools and Technology class at the Story Arts Centre try out our kit of Virtual Reality Viewers