How to Make VR Lenses – Step-by-Step Guide with FAQs, Tips, & More

VR technology is used to provide a more realistic experience. It is also expensive.

In this article, we will tell you how to make a VR Lens.

Let’s find out!

How to Make VR Lenses?

To make a VR lens, you need 3 things

1. A camera that can shoot video in 360 degrees (VR cameras are the best for this).
2. A computer with an HDMI port and a USB port.
3. An app called “VR-lens” or something similar.
4. The ability to edit videos on your computer.

Follow these steps to make a VR lens

1. Connect your camera to your computer via USB.
2. Open up the app.
3. Click the “Add Camera” button.
4. Select the camera from the list of available devices.
5. Click “OK”.
6. You should now see a new device listed under “Devices”.
7. Click the “Edit Device” button next to it.
8. Choose “360 Video” as the type of output.
9. If you want to add more than one camera, click “+ Add Device”, then select the other camera.
10. Now click “Save Settings”.
11. Close the app.
12. Go back into the app and click the “Playback” tab.
13. Make sure the “Device” is set to the name of the camera you just added.

If everything went well, you should be able to play the video on your phone!

Note: Some phones may not support all features of the app.

How to Make a Virtual Reality Headset?

Make your own DIY Google Cardboard-based VR headset at home.

If you want to experience virtual reality without having to spend any money, then you can use Google Cardboard. You can create one using cardboard, clear plastic, magnets, and tape.

We built fully functional DIY Google Cardboards using recycled material, including the lenses. It was really hard to source the lenses, but we managed to get them for less than $100 each.

We used clear plastics for our lenses and that’s how this idea came up.

How Does It Work?

We will start by making homemade lenses for the DIY Google Cardboards. Then, we will use the printable template to create the cardboard enclosure for our own DIY Google Cardboard.

These VR headsets use lenses that help to reduce the LDDV and allow us to view the screen of our smartphones clearly from a few centimeters away from our faces.

We’re making a biconvex lens by filling clear plastic water bottle halves with water and then gluing them together. See the rest of the tutorial for details.

Making a Biconvex Lens for a DIY Google Cardboard VR Headset

Let’s begin with the lenses. Then we’ll move on to the cardboard VR enclosures. If you already have a pair of lenses for making your own Google Cardboard, you don’t need to follow these steps.

You can just jump straight to Step 3. Here are the step-by-step directions

1. If you want to get a good curvature, look for a clear bottle with a good shape.
2. Make a 25-millimeter circle on a piece of cardboard or paper.
3. Use the circular template to cut out the circular piece from the plastic bottle. Cut at least four of these so that you’ll be able to use two of them together to create one biconvex lens for each eye.
4. To combine two pieces of clear polycarbonate into one piece of biconvex-shaped glass, follow these steps:
5. Quickly glue together the two halves of the biconvex you’ve made by carefully sealing them with quick dry epoxy.
6. Then, take your syringe filled with clear water and carefully insert it into the biconvex part until it fills up.
7. To get rid of air pockets, simply pinch or gently squeeze the lenses to slowly release them.
8. Once you’ve removed the air from the balloon, fill it with water, then seal the hole you just created with the syringes’ needles.
9. Wait until it dries completely before testing whether your contact lenses are able to magnify things (like printed letters).
10. Now, repeat the procedure for your second and last biconvex lens.

If you were successful at making your pair of lenses, then you’re ready to start creating your own Google Cardboard.

Making an Enclosure for our DIY Google Cardboard VR Headset

We will now begin building the enclosure for our Google cardboard VR headset. Follow these steps to do so:

1. Print out the template on long-bonding paper in landscape mode.
2. Use scissors to cut out the pattern from the fabric.
3. Glue the templates onto the cardboard.
4. First, cut the pieces of cardboard according to the template. Then glue them together. Once they’re assembled, use the marking on the template to help you fold them correctly.

Attaching the Lens to the DIY Google Cardboard VR Headset

Put the pair of lenses you’ve already made into the eye slot of the Google Cardboard Headset assembly. Then, put the cardboard box back together so that the lenses fit snugly inside the slots.

Testing the Google Cardboard App

Now we can test out some VR apps on our smartphones. Depending on what type of device you have (Android/iPhone) download any VR application or the stock Google Cardboard application and install it on your phone.

Android VR

Place it into the VR headset and see if it works. A good example of an Android VR application is Rollercoaster VR. For iOS users, check out the Google Cardboard application.

Magnets

Be careful when messing with powerful magnets near your phone. It could change the calibration of the sensors!

We tried several different types of powerful magnets near the smartphone. It appears that we may have slightly magnetized some components inside the phone, which could cause the compass to be inaccurate.

Even though the magnetic sensor still works reasonably well, it doesn’t give us the same overall field strength if we turn our phones upside down.

Inside an iPhone, there are several small metal pieces that may be slightly magnetized by the magnetic field created by the magnets. Over time these pieces will become less magnetized.

Don’t get too close to your smartphone when using magnetic compasses. Otherwise, you might mess up your own compass calibration.

Conclusion

We hope this tutorial was helpful to you.

If you liked it, please share it with others. we would also appreciate any feedback you may have about how to improve this tutorial.