[Lab] Google Cardboard, aka the "Oculus Thrift"

Mon Jul 7 11:07:17 EDT 2014

Hi all, sorry if I kept you waiting; on account of the crazy weather out
East, I had my hands full with some unexpected (but very welcome) company
for the weekend.

First, the good news. I was able to successfully place an order (a feat on
its own, really; on account of the recent craze, many online vendors are
out-of-stock) from Surplus Shed (lens details here
<http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l8672.html>). Their price is $4.50
USD per lens or 10 for $35 USD. They have an odd system where you
apparently commit to buy before knowing the shipping rates (I think ABRA
out of Montreal does this too - they say it's so you only pay the actual
shipping rather than some precalculated - read: "more expensive" - rate),
then they email you back with your options and you choose. I was a bit gun
shy, but for the price, I figured I'd roll the dice. I heard back from them
Saturday offering two options via USPS: a "fast" option for $20.05 USD or
the regular for $7.65. I chose the latter and am now I'm waiting on an
final invoice.

The "bad news" (for Paul at least) is that the 5 pairs I ordered are all
claimed at this point... sorry I didn't wait longer, I wanted to order ASAP
on account of the vanishing stock everywhere. I've sent an inquiry to
SurplusShed asking if they can update my quantity. I'll post here when I
hear back.

That said, they seem to still have stock though, so if there's enough
demand, I could place another order for 10. So far on this hypothetical
"second" order I have Dave down for a spare pair and Paul down for a pair.
Are there 3 other people who want to hop on the lens bus?

*Jason*

2014-07-06 12:06 GMT-04:00 <dave at huntgang.com>:

>  I had said that I would take two sets of lens' in case it would help
> ensure we were able to place an order.  I really only need one pair so I
> can certainly go back down to one set if we now have enough people now. But
> I will let the "procurement officer" confirm he still had me down for two
> before getting any hopes up LOL
>
>
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2014-07-06 4:26 am, Darcy Whyte wrote:
>
> I'm not sure of the order status but if worse comes to worse you can
> borrow or have mine. I tend not to keep things from projects after I'm done
> fiddling...
>
>
>
>  --
> Darcy Whyte
>
> Software Since '88 siteware.com | Contact: darcy at siteware.com |
> 613-563-3634 by appointment
>
> Canada N 45° 25'03.1" W 75° 42'21.4"
>  Art+ inventorArtist.com <http://inventorartist.com/> | Aviation
> rubber-power.com
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 5, 2014 at 7:14 PM, Paul & Andrea Mumby <themumbys at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> A couple things, first, can I still get in on a pair of these lenses?
>> Second I've been designing a 3D Printable version of the apparatus, which
>> is a bit more flexible for multiple phone models, and supports focus/IPD
>> adjustment. It's not done yet...
>>
>> Anyway just throwing that out there.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 5, 2014 at 4:58 PM, Kirk Sutherland <
>> kirk.sutherland at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> So last night in anticipation of building our own cardboard(TM) I
>>> installed the app from google on my S4. I have none of the parts needed so
>>> I wasn't expecting anything that great. The first challenge came from
>>> needing to 'click' in order to proceed to the menu. This is done by moving
>>> the included magnet switch up and down, with no magnet I reached for the
>>> closest thing to me I knew had a magnet in it - my cordless phone (in the
>>> speaker). Just moving the cordless up and down close to the side of the
>>> phone worked like a charm and I was able to navigate the menu. My first
>>> impression was that the motion detection was very sensitive, I wasn't
>>> expecting it to be so responsive. Then I loaded up the street view option
>>> from the menu and squished my face against the screen until the two images
>>> merged into one. Even with an extremely blurry image the 3D effect was
>>> quite apparent and moving my head around allowed me to 'look around' the
>>> world. I don't think I have stopped smiling since. I can't wait to try this
>>> with those lenses!
>>>  On Jul 4, 2014 2:08 PM, "Jason Arnold" <arnold.jason at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Crossing our eyes? Come on... we want to look COOL while we're doing
>>>> this :P
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 2014-07-04 14:03 GMT-04:00 Jason Cobill <jason.cobill at gmail.com>:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>    Just crossing your eyes works too (as though you were doing one of
>>>>> those magic-eye things) but I find it's hard to stay focused when there's a
>>>>> lot of action - your eyes want to go back to parallel when you scan around.
>>>>>    The music visualizer looks rad with crossed eyes, the stereoscope
>>>>> toy work great until the slide changes, and then my eyes crank hard and I
>>>>> get an instant migraine. :)
>>>>>
>>>>>    Your mileage may vary. You may be able to fudge it with two toilet
>>>>> paper rolls and some good eye muscles.
>>>>>
>>>>>    -Jason Cobill
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Jason Arnold <arnold.jason at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>   Teh internetz is blowing up this week about the swag from Google's
>>>>>> I/O 2014: https://developers.google.com/cardboard/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Darcy put it out there that he'd like to build one, so would I. The
>>>>>> hard part apparently is finding the right spec of lenses: biconvex, 25mm
>>>>>> diameter, 40mm focal length. I've found some for $7 USD per pair (+
>>>>>> shipping) if we buy 5 pairs. Are there 3 others out there who wanna join
>>>>>> Darcy and I in our cardboard VR future?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Jason*
>>>>>>  _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>
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