Virtual Reality
A TWC project
1961
1950
Detailed information on the history of Virtual Reality
The idea behind virtual reality originated in the 1950s. Morton Heilig imagined a system that would captivate all of the audience’s senses, drawing them more effectively into the story he was telling. His model included a stereoscopic display, a moving chair, fans and odor emitters for a single user. The audience would be a passive recipient of the movie, quite like a 4D movie experience. His concepts would later be carried over to the field of virtual reality.
In 1961, Philco developed the world’s first head-mounted display (HMD). This, as the name suggests, would be strapped on to the head and contained a tracking system which was connected to a closed circuit camera system. This was intended to be used in dangerous situations to allow the user to observe a real environment from a distance. The camera angle could be adjusted by turning one’s head. Bell laboratories later used a similar HMD for helicopters, allowing the pilots to see the infrared images from the camera situated below the helicopter.
In 1966, Sutherland built a HMD that was tethered to a computer system. The computer provided all the graphics for the display (up to this point, HMDs had only been linked to cameras). As the HMD was too heavy to support by the user, the HMD was supported by a suspension system. The HMD could display images in stereo, giving the illusion of depth, and it could also track the user’s head movements so that the field of view would change appropriately as the user looked around. NASA invested a fair bit into this project with the CIA even pitching in $80,000 into Sutherland’s research. The results of this were mostly applied to vehicle simulations. Vehicle simulations proved to be similar to, but not identical to actually operating those vehicles. Therefore, a gap time of at least one day was required between driving a simulated vehicle and driving the real thing.For most of this time, Virtual Reality was out of the public’s radar along with still being focused on vehicle simulations. It wasn’t until Michael McGreeney started experimenting with VR to advance Human-Computer Interaction that the media caught on to it in later years.
The next great step forward for Virtual Reality took place in 1965. Ivan Sutherland envisioned the Ultimate Display. This ultimate display was developed so that users could see into and interact with a world that appeared almost as real as the one we live in.
1966
1965
History of Virtual Reality
In the 1990s, the term Virtual Reality was officially coined. The media hype generated surrounding Virtual Reality ended up overshadowing the actual capabilities of the technology. As a result, interest began waning when the public discovered that VR was not all that they were led to believe.
1990
Today, Virtual Reality is applied to many fields such as healthcare and transportation. It is especially gaining popularity in the gaming field. A new head-mounted display targeted at gamers promises an immersive experience and may herald a new future where we may never experience visual media the same way again.
2013
All images reproduced from http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/lesson17.html