In 1992 the Lawnmower Man movie introduced the concept of virtual reality to a wider audience. It was in part based on the founder of Virtual Reality Jaron Lanier and his early laboratory days. Jaron was played by Pierce Brosnan, a scientist who used virtual reality therapy on a mentally disabled patient. Real virtual reality equipment from VPL research labs…
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Between 1990 and 1991 VR was going to be reaching out into all areas and VR gaming was something that got the most people excited. At the European Computer Graphics Conference And Exhibition in Montreux, Switzerland a man called Jonathan D. Waldern exhibited Virtuality, a VR arcade machine. Virtuality’s release surprised the existing VR industry. Despite crude graphics, it offered…
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It was clear VR had to be powered with a powerful PC, but how is a PC transformed into a magic carpet ride through a virtual world with hills, trees, and wide rivers? How can you use one to create such a world in the first place? By focusing on a PC solution it proved VR isn’t a technology restricted…
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It was Spring 1990 when Gullichsen and Gelband brought one of the few VR systems in the world to Intel for a demonstration. A researcher in Intel’s CAD group, Kenneth Pimentel had arranged for the demonstration as part of a project he was pursuing. After setting up the system, everyone in attendance had a chance to explore Sense8’s strange new…
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It wasn’t until March 1989 that the very first demonstration of a full PC-VR system was shown. While most of the demonstrations were of Auto desk Cad drawing there were a few games and other experiences that started to really show off the possibilities of VR. One of those demos was a virtual bicycle ride that used a stationary exercise…
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At the height of the video-game craze in 1983, Lanier created a popular game called Moondust for Atari. The success of the game and the royalties it generated gave lanier the freedom to pursue the silicon Vally ethos of being an entrepreneur. A year later, VPL Research was officially founded and Scott Fisher from NASA came rocking. Sadly conservative companies…
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All the pieces of VR that we still use today were coming together nicely, but sound was still in stereo at best which meant it wasn’t matching the 3D world. But it wasn’t just interactive gloves that NASA’s Scott Fisher was familiar with, he also knew an awful lot about 3-D or binaural sound. Just as stereoscopic images produce a…
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While at ARC, Fisher had met Thomas G. Zimmerman, the developer of a new kind of glove that could be used to measure the degree of bend or flex in each finger joint. Zimmerman had originally developed the glove with the intent of using it as an instrument to create music. By hooking it up to a computer that controlled…
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By the mid-1980s, all the important components of today’s virtual reality systems existed in one form or another, awaiting an inventive mind to bring all the pieces together and the exploration of virtual worlds to begin in earnest. In 1981, Michael McGreevy, who was studying for a PhD in cognitive engineering, and Dr Stephen Ellis, a cognitive scientist, began a…
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It wasn’t until 1986 that computing power had increased sufficiently to justify dusting off the GROPE system and having another go at the problem. A simulation of a drug with over 1500 atoms and a protein of 21 atoms was modelled on the new GROPE-III system. Wearing polarized eyeglasses, the chemist viewed a stereoscopic image of the molecules. This gave…
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