I've decided to dispose all of my 3DoF VR headsets, which I haven't touched since upgrading to 6DoF VR equipment. They will be taken apart to see how each manufacturer approaches building such a headset and extract their lenses for potential future projects. First up: a Google Daydream VR headset.

Daydream was Google's effort to evolve from Cardboard. One major difference is the addition of a handheld controller. It has an accelerometer within for 3DoF tracking, a small round touchpad, and four buttons: two on the face and two on the side. Making it a required component means Daydream apps can take advantage of far more interactivity than Cardboard's single tap.

Another evolution for user-friendliness were the two black nubs towards the center. They make contact with phone screen and register as two touch points. The Daydream app will read their position and adjust display image for proper alignment with the headset, using software smarts to eliminate one user headache. Pretty clever!

The easiest item to remove was the face gasket, held with hook-and-loop fasteners for cleaning or replacement.

Once removed, seven small Torx (T5) fasteners are accessible for removal.

The retaining mechanism for the front panel is also now accessible. To release them, disconnect the spring and press retaining hooks inward.

Front panel hinges can then be slid free.

I thought there might be fasteners underneath rubber nubs in the front panel. I was wrong.

Brute force prying released the extensive set of plastic clips holding two halves together. Not all of the clips survived this process.

Once those two halves were separated, everything else inside the panel came away freely. Hinge pins, elastic holding straps, etc.

As soon as the phone was inserted into this Daydream headset, it knew to go to Google Play store and download the appropriate Google app. (Another user-friendliness advancement.) I wondered how that was accomplished and the answer are these RFID strips made by Identiv.

Back to the headset, there was one more Torx fastener hiding in a different place and orientation from all the others, up near the top of our nose.

Its removal frees the hook at the top of the headset.

Which then frees up the optical frame. I was surprised to see a length of wire for electrically connecting the two screen alignment nubs.

I'll keep the wire -- and the two nubs -- in case I want to play with capacitive touchscreens.

The lenses are clipped in at three points with a simple mechanism.

Which were easy to remove.

That was fun, now I turn my attention to its accompanying Daydream handheld controller.