Today we'll look at the history of virtual reality.
Like we did in previous units, let's consider the unique challenges and affordances of developing work in VR as we look through these examples.
Modern virtual reality relies on digital technology to create an immersive world for the viewer using 3D sensing, stereoscopic displays and 3D graphics environments.
Some analog technical precedents exist.
Panoramic paintings, found in different forms in China in the 12th century and Europe in the 19th century, were large scale paintings that could be viewed in a circular room or in a scroll to create a sense of immersion in a representation of place for the viewer.
Night Revels of Han Xizai
Diagram illustrating the Leicester Square Rotunda
In the 19th and 20th centuries, sterescopic images and viewer technology were created that could recreate the perception of depth when viewing a 2D surface.
The stereoscope created by Charles Wheatstone in 1838
A handheld stereoscope created by David Brewster in 1849
View-Master by William Gruber series from 1952 - 1962
Virtual reality has frequently been depicted in science-fiction and fantasy fiction, films and other media, starting with the story Pygmalion's Spectacles, written by Stanley Weinbaum in 1933.
In 1962, Morton Heilig created the Sensorama, an arcade cabinet with stereoscopic display as well as haptic feedback, smell generators and a fan.
Heilig also created the Telesphere Mask, which used a stereoscopic display, but did not have motion tracking.
The first motion tracking for eyes was done with the McConnell-Douglas Corporation's HMD, used for military training.
The term virtual reality was popularized by the developer Jaron Lanier, who founded the Visual Programming Lab where they developed the Dataglove and EyePhone, some of the first virtual reality products.
Lanier's work inspired the film The Lawnmower Man in 1992, which popularized the concept of virtual reality.
In the 1990s, The Virtuality Group was formed and began to develop commercial virtual reality products.
Game console companies released virtual reality hardware systems in the 1990s which were commercial failures, including the Sega VR-1 and the Nintendo Virtual Boy.
In 2012, a Kickstarter for the Oculus Rift headset created by Palmer Lucky was very successful, demonstrating the growing interest in VR. Later, Facebook purchased Oculus and developed new versions that have made commercial access and adoption much more widespread. In 2014, Google released the Daydream and Cardboard VR platforms, Sony created VR for the Play Station and Samsung developed Gear VR.
Since the recent commercial growth of VR, some trends like mobile VR have lost traction while some invocations like standalone vr, hand tracking hardware, and room mapping have increased the use of VR products.
