SAN FRANCISCO—Amidst all the smartwatches, in-car entertainment, and protesters, it's easy to overlook Cardboard at Google I/O. This mysterious project was announced with a laugh in the keynote's final moments, and handed out to every attendee, but to truly understand Cardboard, you needed to put it together.
Cardboard is a stereoscopic viewer that is flat-packed with Ikea-style assembly instructions. It's very "insert tab 1 into slot 1." What you assemble is something like a cardboard Viewmaster. The eye holes have convex plastic lenses that act like magnifying glasses. The top is secured with Velcro that you peel back to insert your smartphone. A rubber band provides enough friction so your phone stays in place and an NFC panel triggers either the Google I/O app or the accompanying Cardboard app.
Stereoscopic images create the illusion of three dimensions using two images viewed through a special magnifier. It's a very old trick, and the art form was especially prominent during the American Civil War. Google's contribution, however, is much closer to the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
Slip on Cardboard and you'll see a menu of options, including classic stereoscopic images from history, a trip through the streets of Paris, and others. There's also a Chrome Experiments for Cardboard, which include (among other things) a 3D music video, a coin-collecting game, and what looks like a simulated roller coaster—which failed to load on my crappy hotel Wi-Fi.
To interact with Cardboard, simply move your head around to navigate and slide the magnetic switch on the left side to click or tap. Tilting your head 90 degrees to the right opens the main menu.
When I tried Google Cardboard at the I/O booth, I selected the Google Earth portion of the Cardboard app. I found myself in a shocking (if a bit poorly rendered) simulacra of a dramatic canyon. When I slid the switch, I began to cruise through the gorge like a bird. Looking up, I discovered I could travel to space and did so. From here, the whole of the Earth spread below me in 3D glory. I could fly down towards it, moving (fairly) seamlessly from orbit to wherever I wanted to visit.
For all its cleverness, Google Cardboard isn't the Occulus Rift. As breathtaking as Google Earth is in stereoscopic 3D, it still has all the quirks and occasional ugliness of Google Earth. It's obvious that Google Cardboard is a bit of a joke, but it's a really cool one. Of all the amazing, exciting things I saw at Google I/O, it was in Cardboard that I saw all the potential of the Android platform.
For more, check out our full I/O rundown in the slideshow above. Also see our first look at the Moto 360 smartwatch, and our overview of the show in the video below.