Stereoviews in 3D with VR and Cardboard

With the sudden popularity of inexpensive cardboard VR goggles which fit smartphones, thanks to the sudden popularity of immersive 360 videos, we now have a simple way of enjoying century-old stereoview cards again, without having to purchase a fragile and expensive antique viewer.

Cardboard viewers can be found pretty much everywhere, sometimes for free (mine came from a promotional event put on by my dayjob employer). Don't know where to start to find yours? Try here! (And for more general info, check out Google's Cardboard page.)

So besides your viewer, all you need is a full-screen image of a stereoview card on your phone. At the end of each blog post which features a stereoview card, I post scans optimally formatted to work with the cardboard VR viewer.

However, if you have cards you want to view, but don't have a scan, fear not...the solution is easy. Just take a photo of the card with your phone. Make sure that the image is full-width and straight. Many cards are warped, but other than the edges being a bit out of focus, it doesn't matter that much. For instance, the image of the card below (the card having a nice warp to it) was taken with my Samsung 6 and works pretty well - if you have a cardboard VR viewer, download the photo and try it out!