Netherlands-based Aryzon today launched a Kickstarter campaign for what the company is calling “cardboard for augmented reality,” a $30 device that uses folded card stock and lenses to turn a smartphone into an AR experience.

Augmented reality, also called mixed reality, is a method by which virtual objects are placed into a person’s field of view, usually by way of a headset worn over the face. The current best example of this technology is the Microsoft HoloLens, which has a price tag of $3,000 and is currently available only to businesses.

The Aryzon headset solution works like Google Inc.’s Cardboard, a headset made of folded cardboard and flat lenses that can turn most modern smartphones into virtual-reality devices. Like Cardboard, the Aryzon is extremely inexpensive compared to fully integrated devices.

Asking for a modest $28,000 to kickstart the project, the Kickstarter campaign has already exceeded its goal, with almost 900 backers.

“The Aryzon is not designed to compete directly with current AR solutions, but rather to function as a bridge into the augmented world,” a spokesperson said, addressing the current and future goals of the headset. “Everyone’s got a smartphone, which means everyone can use Aryzon to quickly jump into AR, to experiment, develop and learn.”

The company revealed that it expects its product to open up practical uses of head-mounted augmented reality for merchants, product manufactures and doctors. Examples of potential uses include being able to visualize Ikea furniture placed in a user’s own home décor and using the NikeID shoe design platform, shoe maker Nike Inc.’s service that allows customers to design their own footwear, on a tabletop.

Aryzon also sees its product as useful to educate workers and physicians by using digital overlay on real-world objects during training. With augmented reality, a physical therapist could better understand why a patient’s knee hurts, or a surgeon could use it to overlay X-ray or MRI images while operating to get a more accurate view.

With the completion of its funding goal, Aryzon intends to open up its software development kit, which will allow third-party developers to adapt apps for iOS and Android devices. The SDK will be made available early to anyone who pledged money to the Kickstarter and already promises integration with Unity Technologies’s popular augmented-reality engine.

With Aryzon’s software, developers and users will be able to interact with holographic models projected over a field of view: Users can scale, rotate and navigate in augmented reality.

The kit for building the headset can be pre-ordered now through buying into the Kickstarter campaign. The finished product is expected to ship in September.

Image: Photopin