Casual immersive viewing with smartphones

In this paper, we explore how to better integrate virtual reality viewing to a smartphone. We present novel designs for casual (short-term) immersive viewing of spatial and 3D content, such as augmented and virtual reality, with smartphones. Our goal is to create a simple and low-cost casual-viewing design which could be retrofitted and eventually be embedded into smartphones, instead of using larger spatial viewing accessories. We explore different designs and implemented several prototypes. One prototype uses thin and light near-to-eye optics with a smartphone display, thus providing the user with the functionality of a large, high-resolution virtual display. Our designs also enable 3D user interfaces. Easy interaction through various gestures and other modalities is possible by using the inertial and other sensors and camera of the smartphone. Our preliminary concepts are a starting point for exploring useful constructions and designs for such usage.

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