Exploring What’s Left of Google’s VR Dreams

You’re likely familiar with Google’s Cardboard, and the legions of cheap virtual reality headsets it spawned. By sticking a smartphone to the wearer’s head, all these headsets needed were some …. Exploring What’s Left of Google’s VR Dreams.

You may even know about Google Daydream initiative that came a few years later, which not only improved the basic Cardboard design but brought with it new software features such as VR-specific improvements to the Android operating system and a version of the Play Store dedicated to 3D games and applications. But unless you’re a true Google devotee, what you may not know is that the search giant partnered with Lenovo to produce a stand-alone Daydream headset called the Mirage Solo in 2018. A full year before the Oculus Quest hit the market, the $399 device combined the guts of a smartphone with a 2560×1440 display running at 75 Hz, a pair of cameras in the front that let it see the world around the user in three dimensions, and a gyroscopic handheld controller to provide an immersive VR experience without having to be tethered to a computer.

To the standard consumer version, there was even a “Business Edition” of the headset specifically marketed to schools, offices, and hospitals as a way to deliver VR content without having to invest in any additional infrastructure. Because in classic fashion, just a few years after it was released, Google decided they were no longer interested in virtual reality and shuttered the entire Daydream program. The software components it introduced were stripped out of Android, the 3D Play Store was taken down, and the back-end mechanisms necessary to register new headsets were turned off.