Among the announcements at Googles I/O developer conference was its Cardboard project, which aims to provide users with a simple, inexpensive VR (Virtual Reality) experiences.

Cardboard kits were handed out to all the developers in attendance, and instructions for creating them have been placed online.

The launch seems like a deliberate counter to Facebooks $2bn (£1.175bn) acquisition of Oculus, the manufacturer of the Rift VR headset. While the Rift may offer a superior experience, it is currently only available to developers, and comes with a $350 pricetag, whereas sites are offering all the parts needed to transform an Android phone into a Cardboard headset for as little as $19.95.

According to the Cardboard site, Google wants “everyone to experience virtual reality in a simple, fun and inexpensive way. Thats the goal of the Cardboard project. By making it easy and inexpensive to experiment with VR, we hope to encourage developers to build the next generation of immersive digital experiences and make them available to everyone.”

Those looking to manufacture the Cardboard headset will need strong cardboard, lenses, magnets to interact with the phone while it is inside the headset, velcro and a rubber band, along with a compatible handset with the Cardboard app downloaded. The Cardboard website even suggests you can use a pizza box to construct your headset.

To work with the headset, Google has released a VR Toolkit for developers, hoping to encourage them to build support for Cardboard into their apps and services. While the inexpensive price and novelty of the Cardboard project may lead many to experimenting with it, without an ecosystem of apps that work with the technology, it is unlikely to flourish.

Nonetheless, the radically different approach Google has taken with virtual reality here may mean that it is far closer to a wide public adoption than the products like the Oculus Rift previously suggested.