Large bag of crisps at my side and headset on (‘HMD’ if you must), I nestle into the comfiest armchair in the house. The soft padding of the headgear feels secure and reassuringly weighty as it encloses my skull, and with all peripheral vision also blocked off, I feel I have just announced “Do Not Disturb” to the rest of the household.
With smartphone in position within the HMD, I am truly Daydream ready. I settle down to import a more appealing version of reality. Of course the sad reality is that Google’s virtual reality (VR) platform, Daydream, won’t be with us till October, and only then to the proud owners of a ZTE Axon 7 (the first Android) or the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe. These are the only phones so far which Google itself considers to be “Daydream-ready”, conforming to the minimum requirements of running Android 7.0 Nougat, 4GB of RAM, HD OLED displays, Snapdragon 810 and low latency display.
51Degrees, already on the case, fully supports Google Daydream, meaning your next VR creation will be available to Daydream users with all the usual speed and accuracy of device detection you have come to expect. Google Daydream, the more robust successor to its pizza box predecessor Google Cardboard, might be predominantly associated with gaming and movies, but car manufacturers are also considering the merits of a VR tour of new makes. How long before e-commerce follows suit?