Google supports all Android apps at Daydream VR

Google continues to advance its Daydream VR platform, the company announced today. Describing three new features as "experimental" to be tested by developers, Google adds support for Android applications to all Daydream devices, and the Lenovo Mirage Solo has both a 6 degrees of freedom controller and a transparent mode.

The announcement of "Android applications for smartphone in virtual reality" means that Daydream headsets will be able to open the user interface versions of Android games, tools and applications in a larger VR space. Applications will appear to float in a "large virtual screen" that can be controlled with standard Daydream Pointing Controllers, allowing developers to offer at least basic Daydream support without having to create new interfaces. user.

Google's work on the Daydream Mirage Solo standalone device is developing with great functionality and a small feature. The new APIs support position control tracking with six degrees of freedom, allowing users' hands to move more naturally in 3D VR space – but there is a problem.

Since Mirage Solo did not ship any 6DoF hardware, the company uses machine-learning software and low-end components to "accurately estimate" controllers' position, an approach that Google believes will reduce hardware prices 6DoF. Interested developers can request here the opportunity to purchase a development kit with "experimental 6DoF controllers using a single optical tracking system" to provide the necessary hardware functionality for the new Mirage Solo feature. Two controllers and a new front for the helmet are included in the kit.

Mirage Solo also supports the See-through mode, which allows users wearing the headset to see the real world in 3D through two external cameras. Despite the cameras' approximate position, providing a real-time view of the world in front of you is seemingly harder than it looks, and requires Google's WorldSense technology for low-latency tracking. The feature is similar to the Flashlight feature of Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

But Google hopes that the See-through mode will also allow Mirage Solo to offer mixed functionality, combining real images and augmented images similar to those of Magic Leap One – without the size of the augmented window being extremely limited. As with the other features, this one is still in the "experimental" phase, although Google offers a video presenting polygonal objects superimposed on a real office space to show the potential of the traversing mode.

Support for Android apps and See-through mode are within the reach of all developers to "do it soon". Applications for Google's 6DoF controllers are now accepted, with no specific delivery date.