Virtual reality or VR has been around for decades from the eighties to now. There is always the hype and then the thud of reality when it doesn’t catch on across the mass markets.

The Goggle cardboard experience is not new.  Instead of you going out and spending £15 and finding out what it’s about I volunteered to do it and I’ll document my findings here. You can pick one up now for around £3 on eBay.

“With Google Cardboard there is an initial wow moment followed by “meh”. Perhaps when better content like booking a holiday comes along it may catch on. “

What works

1. Provides a cheap means of viewing 3D content.

What doesn’t work

1. You can watch 3D content and get nearly as immersive experience without it on your smartphone.
2. There isn’t enough good content out there yet.
3. After using the unit for 15 minutes I felt “giddy”. You may not.
4. You look silly using it. This is probably the biggest challenge to adoption of the technology.

Google cardboard is a rectangular piece of cardboard that you unfold and then re-fold into a binocular shape. You download a few VR Apps. Then insert your smartphone into the cardboard in front of your eyes as a screen and press play. You’ll have to hold the cardboard up to your face as there is no tie to tie it to the back of your head.

You watch experiences filmed in 3D through the headset.

If you want a top ten list of whats good have a look at this list. Start with the New York Times VR App and you’ll be transported to the 3D world of Mississippi. This scene is of  a crime in the 1950s where the local people got off with a murder. This was compelling as you stand where he was murdered and in the courthouse where the jury acquitted the accused. Not a happy story but a dramatic one and you can feel the emotion of the journalist.

I tried the standard Google cardboard App and “swam with fishes” in a virtual sea. It was OK and there are many underwater VR Apps. Google are reportedly filming underwater in 3D near where holiday resorts are so that you can swim in the sea then book the holiday.

You can login to Netflix and watch your films with your friends virtually on a virtual screen and sit on a virtual sofa.

Having held the unit for more than 15 minutes to my head I stopped as I felt a little giddy.

I then discovered you had two choices to watch the content, the first using cardboard and the second using something called “360”. If you choose 360 you don’t need the cardboard unit at all. The experience was clearer than the cardboard experience but not as immersive.

So is it any good? Well no is the short answer. After the initial wow factor of looking at 3D you put it down and get on with your life.

Compelling content filmed in 3D can be viewed without holding this cardboard unit to your heads.

whichwearable highlight : Watching the scene of the trial of “Remembering Emmett Till” whilst virtually sitting in the trial.

whichwearable lowlight : Finding out that I could watch the 3D content in a compelling way without the cardboard unit.

Footnote : Google cardboard unit has now been replaced with the £99 Google Daydream headset. This is plastic and can be strapped to your head without having to hold it. It comes with a controller now to play games and select content on the screen.