Google is stepping further into the virtual world.
It has announced a new platform for virtual reality called Daydream, and said manufacturers including would have smartphones capable of handling it this autumn.
The platform is meant to improve upon the experience of Cardboard, which Google launched two years ago, by making virtual-reality experiences that are more comfortable, higher quality and more immersive.
Google said it had created a reference design for a headset that a partner manufacturer would have ready for the autumn, and designs for a new controller that has a few buttons, a touchpad and sensors that track its orientation and where it is pointing.
In a demonstration for some 7,000 attendees at its Google I/O conference in Mountain View, California, the internet search behemoth showed how the controller could be used to flip digital pancakes, throw things, cast a virtual fishing line and fly a digital dragon.
Sophisticated systems such as the rival Rift and the HTC Vive are expensive, limiting their appeal to gamers and other tech enthusiasts. Alternatively, cheaper VR headsets that tap the power of smartphones are typically tied to one manufacturer's phones, such as Samsung's or LG's.
Daydream headsets will work with a range of phone brands. The Gartner analyst Brian Blau says he believes the Daydream-powered devices could prove to be a “thorn in the side” of both Samsung and Oculus, which teamed up to make a similar VR headset , called Gear VR, late last year.
But there are hurdles: users will need a higher-end phone running the upcoming N version of Android. Existing phones will not have the right hardware, and neither will cheaper N phones, so buyers may have to spend a few hundred dirhams more for a top-of-the-line model.
Google says at least eight manufacturers, including Samsung, HTC and Huawei, will make compatible phones this autumn. It is a matter of adding sensors and good-enough screens among other things.
Because these new N phones do not exist yet, it will take time for Daydream to grow, says Jan Dawson, the chief analyst at Jackdaw Research.
Furthermore, Daydream will not work with Apple’s iPhones, whereas Google Cardboard headsets do.
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