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Period: to
History of Virtual Reality
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Sensorama
Morton Heilig created a multi-sensory simulator. A
prerecorded film in color and stereo, was augmented by binaural sound, scent, wind and
vibration experiences. This was the first approach to create a virtual reality system and it
had all the features of such an environment, but it was not interactive -
The Ultimate Display
1965 Ivan Sutherland proposed the ultimate solution of
virtual reality: an artificial world construction concept that included interactive graphics,
force-feedback, sound, smell and taste -
"The Sword of Damocles" HMD
the first virtual reality system realized in hardware, not
in concept. Ivan Sutherland constructs a device considered as the first Head Mounted Display (HMD), with appropriate head tracking. It supported a stereo view that was updated correctly according to the user’s head position and orientation -
VCASS
Thomas Furness at the US Air Force’s Armstrong Medical Research Laboratories developed in 1982 the Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator – an
advanced flight simulator. The fighter pilot wore a HMD that augmented the out-thewindow view by the graphics describing targeting or optimal flight path information. -
Data Glove
the VPL company manufactures the popular DataGlove (1985) and the Eyephone
HMD (1988) – the first commercially available VR devices. -
CAVE
1992 CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) is a virtual
reality and scientific visualization system. Instead of using a HMD it projects stereoscopic images on the walls of room (user must wear LCD shutter glasses). This approach assures superior quality and resolution of viewed images, and wider field of view in comparison to HMD based systems -
Augemented Reality and Other Inventions
“presents a virtual world that enriches,
rather than replaces the real world”
the enhancement of human vision – augmented
reality became a focus of many research projects in early 1990s -
Second Life
Second Life, owned by Linden Labs, is an internet-based multiplayer vitual world designed by residents, call avatars (Ahern & Wink, 2010)
