The History of Virtual Reality

The history of virtual reality began with panoramic painting from the nineteenth century. The panoramic paintings were projected to fulfill the viewer’s whole field of visualization, creating a sense of presence at some historical event. In 1838 Charles Wheatstone’s created the stereoscopic photos that demonstrated two side by side stereoscopic imageries through a stereoscope that gave the user a sense of immersion into the imageries. In 1929 Edward Link built an electromechanical commercial flight simulator called “Link trainer.” The stimulator was coordinated by engines that connected to the rudder and steering column to change the pitch and roll. The stimulator also included a small motor-driven machine that mirrored turbulence and disturbances. In 1930, virtual reality was predicted by science fiction story wrote by Stanley G. Weinbaum called Pygmalion’s Spectacles, which contains the idea of a pair of goggles that let the users experience a fictional world through holographic along with the users’ five senses. In 1950s Morton Heilig developed the Sensorama which was an interactive theatre cabinet that would stimulate all the senses of the users. The Sensorama includes stereo speakers, a stereoscopic three-dimensional display, fans, smell generators and a vibrating chair for a sense of immersion of the theatre. In 1960 the first virtual reality mounted display was created by Morton Heilig called Telesphere Mask, which provided stereoscopic three-dimensional with stereo sound. In 1961the first motion tracking HMD called Headsight was created by Comeau and Bryan. The Headsight incorporated a screen for each eye and a magnetic motion tracking system, which was linked to a closed circuit camera designed for immersive distant inspecting of risky circumstances by the military. In 1965 Ivan Sutherland made a reality stimulator where one could not tell the difference from actual reality called The Ultimate display, which became the fundamental blueprint for virtual reality today. In 1968 Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull developed the first virtual reality and artificial reality head mounted display called Sword of Damocles. Sword of Damocles was actually connected to a computer where the computer generated graphics creating primitive wireframe rooms and objects. In 1969 Myron Kruegere created Artificial Reality which is a series of computer-generated experiences that responded to the people in it. The Artificial Reality enabled people to interconnect with each other in a responsive computer generated environment miles apart. In 1987 founder of the visual programming lab, Jaron Lanier, coined the term “Virtual Reality,” and was the first company to sell Virtual Reality technologies. In 1991 the world began to see virtual reality machines to which the community had access. In 1992 the concept of virtual reality was introduced to a wider audience in The Lawnmower Man movie. In 1993 Sega VR headset was announced by Sega. In 1995 Nintendo released its first virtual reality devices called Virtual Boy which was a three- dimensional gaming console that could display true three-dimensional graphics. Lastly, in 1999 The Matrix movie was released which brought the topic of stimulated reality into the mainstream.