The Occulus Rift and other Virtual Reality Head Mounted Devices (HMDs) may still be too pricey for the average technopile, but if Viewbox has its way, soon anyone with a smartphone will be able to use their foldable, neoprene HMD to experience virtual reality.
Viewbox recently began its Kickstarter campaign to begin producing their innovative and affordable solution for and everyman's VR viewer.
The Viewbox's creator, Simon Josefsson, is a freelance designer from Sweden. He says in the campaign video that he made Viewbox to be foldable for portability and can fit smartphones up to 3.5 by 6.7 inches. The Viewbox will allow users to watch movies and videos and play games in an immersed virtual environment.
The video shows how the polypropene sheets fold easily and neatly into a housing with lenses that will hold the smartphone in place. Everything snaps into itself to allow users to comfortably wear the Viewbox without worrying about their phone falling out while they are watching.
The material of the Viewbox is also described as durable, yet comfortable because it adjusts to the user's head shapes. Even people who wear glasses can wear the Viewbox.
In addition to the headset, Viewbox is also including an Ingot, which is a device that will allow you to interact with objects in a 3D, virtual reality space.
"This is our way to make a insanely cheap interaction device that almost everyone has the access to. Just print our marker, glue it to a cardboard / hard paper and fold it into a Ingot. The camera on your smartphone recognize the pattern and different virtual objects could be attached to interact with menus and select options. Why not create a casual Pong game?" Josefsson explained.
The Kickstarter campaign for Viewbox is set to close in January 2015, with an estimated delivery time to backers beginning in April 2015.
