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Internship Opportunity To Create Virtual Reality App using Android SDK

~*Happy New Year 2023*~

Thank you for using my blog!

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Complete HelloCardboard VR App Development.
Get E-Certificate & Join AICTE Recognized Internship.

Start VR App Development Now. 

What is Virtual Reality?

Virtual Reality (VR) is an immersive technology in which realistic simulated three-dimensional environment is created digitally. This three-dimensional environment is viewed using special device called head-mounted display (HMD sometimes referred as VR Headset) by immersing into it. In its simplest form VR can be experienced by downloading VR App on smartphone and putting it in VR headset. There are several types of VR headsets for smartphones ranging from few Hundred to few Thousand Rupees. Some examples are Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream which are still in the range of Rs 10000 to 20000. For a common man or student or learner of VR, the cost might appear prohibitive. Therefore, Google developed open-source and affordable VR Headset known as Google Cardboard in 2014. A year later Google launched Google Cardboard V2. You can either make your own or buy of the shelf ready to use Google Cardboard. Simulation Centre has developed India’s lowest priced VR Headset inspiring from Google Cardboard.  If you have Google Cardboard - VR Headset then you need to buy and directly proceed with the App development. If you don't have then following are buying options and you will need one.

Simulation Centre’s VR Headset
Google Cardboard V1

Ready to use VR Headset

DIY Kit

Click here to buy
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07L2HQJWC 		Click here to buy
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B085ZRZHDY

3D Printed VR Headset
Google Cardboard V2

Click here to buy
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B083385PRQ
[In case of physical internship, students use sample VR Headsets kept in our office and they need not buy during their development and testing. However, students can't come to our office in this Corona situation. Therefore, we are asking students to buy anyone of the above for their development and testing while working from home]

Watch the video to know how to make VR Headset using DIY Kit.


Experience VR using Google Cardboard and Smartphone

There are several ways to experience VR using smartphone and Google Cardboard. One of the option is to download VR App from Playstore, Install and start viewing in Google Cardboard. Let me take you to Roller Coaster Ride with Santa.

Install Epic Roller Coaster App from Playstore

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=games.b4t.epicrollercoasters

 

After installing, play App in Virtual Reality mode as shown below.
Insert your Smartphone in the VR Headset, and put it on your head. 
Wait for loading and updating information. After sometime, two buttons and yellow dot (or cursor) appears on the screen as shown.

 
Take the yellow dot on PLAY button by moving your head. 
It takes you to the next screen.

Now move cursor to the SELECT CAR button as shown below.
Enjoy Roller Coaster Ride with Santa. 
There are more rides within this App. 
You can search for more VR Apps on Playstore.

Alternatively, you can download Cardboard App from playstore and configure VR Headset and smartphone. This will also let you know if your smartphone is compatible to Google Cardboard or not.

Open Google Playstore App.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo
Install Cardboard App from Google Playstore. 
Warning 
Following message appears if phone is not VR compatible.
Open the Cardboard App. 
To pair your phone with VR Headset, tap the Right arrow and scan QR Code given on VR Headset. 
You may see your mobile screen splitting in two.
Manually Select any one icon if you are using Google Cardboard V1. Use trigger button if you are using Google Cardboard V2. 
Select face mask like icon called Exhibit.

Insert your phone inside VR Headset.
Place the phone in the middle.
Enjoy the beautiful artistic Exhibit with your body and head motion.

 

Develop Your Own VR App:

I hope you enjoyed the Roller Coaster ride with Santa and mesmerised by the experience. Do you want to learn create such VR Apps? If yes, then you have an opportunity to do internship at Simulation Centre, Pune. You can apply for AICTE approved internship after successfully building the “Hello Cardboard” or  VR App and demonstrating it for Simulation Centre’s VR Headset available on Amazon.
The open source Google Cardboard SDK allows you to build immersive cross-platform VR App for Android and iOS. With essential VR features such as motion tracking, stereoscopic rendering, and user interaction. You can develop VR App for Google Cardboard using one of the following three development environments:

Android SDK Development Environment for VR App or Google Cardboard App:

In this blog, I am going to explain the process using Android SDK. By now you have hardware in place if you were able to use VR on your smartphone using one of the Simulation Centres Google Cardboard. Now it’s time to setup the development environment. Follow the following steps:
Step 1 – Install latest Android Studio
Step 2 – Install latest Android SDK
Step 3 – Install latest Android NDK Framework
To review or update installed SDKs, go to Preferences > Appearance and Behavior
System Settings > Android SDK in Android Studio.

Build Your First Google Cardboard VR App

Once your development environment is ready. You can download and build the demo app.
Step 1 – Download Cardboard SDK and HelloCardboard demo app from GitHub:

Step 2 - In Android Studio, select Open an existing Android Studio Project, then select the directory where the Cardboard SDK and the HelloCardboard demo app downloaded into.
Your code will appear in the Project window in Android Studio.
 
Step 3 - To assemble the Cardboard SDK, double-click the assemble option within  cardboard/:sdk/Tasks/build folder in the Gradle tab (View > Tool Windows > Gradle).
 
Step 4 - Run the HelloCardboard demo app on your smartphone by selecting Run > Run... and select the hellocardboard-android target.

When you run HelloCardboard App on your smartphone, you'll look for spheres in 3D space. To find and collect a sphere: Move your head around in any direction until you see a floating shape.
 
Look directly at the sphere. This causes it to change colors.

Walkthrough the code and play with given code to do following activities:
  • Configure the device
  • Head tracking
  • Pause and resume head tracker
  • Lens distortion
  • Rendering: Rendering content in Cardboard involves the following:
    • Creating textures
    • Getting view and projection matrices for the left and right eyes
    • Creating the renderer and setting the distortion mesh
    • Rendering each frame
    • Create textures
For scripts of above activities visit link below:

Detailed Steps and More VR App Examples

For detailed steps of building Google Cardboard App using Android SDK read following book. Code for each chapter is given on GitHub: https://github.com/cardbookvr?tab=repositories


How to Apply? 

If you are able to successfully build the code and run this HelloCardboard App, please contact me on WhatsApp or on Email to give a demo of your work. After demonstration you will be asked to apply for AICTE recognised internship available at Simulation Centre. I will share the link to apply during this demo and further details will be provided for your internship VR App. Your successful demo will give us confidence that you have interest, capability along with development environment to develop VR App for industrial scale problem. 



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