philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

A Brief History of VR

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Virtual reality 1935

Like many great technological advances, virtual reality was envisaged in science fiction long before it became fact. In Pygmalion's Spectacles, a 1935 short story by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum, a strange man in Central Park, New York, invites the protagonist to use a pair of VR glasses to travel to the utopian world of Paracosma.

1962

Mort Heilig, a US film-maker, unveiled Sensorama, an arcade system with a vibrating seat, 3D display and even a scent nozzle. Viewers sitting in a giant cupboard could “ride” a motorbike through New York, sensing wind, bumps and smells. But high costs meant that the first true VR experience remained a novelty and died.

1968

Ivan Sutherland created a head-mounted computer using early elements of virtual reality and augmented reality (the overlaying of virtual elements over a real-world view). But the graphics were still rudimentary, and the device was so heavy that it had to be suspended from a ceiling while the user wore it. Meanwhile, at an air base in Ohio, military engineer Thomas Furness was starting work on new flight simulators that would later use VR.

1977

Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology drove around Aspen, Colorado, with cameras on a car roof, photographing every inch of the city. Decades before Google Street View, they stitched the images together to create a digital recreation of every street, which the viewer could navigate by computer. Financed with Pentagon money, it was supposed to give armies a way to remotely familiarise themselves with new terrain.

1985

Jaron Lanier set about popularising VR devices with his company, VPL Research. His “Data Glove” paired with a set of “Eye Phones” allowed users to explore and manipulate crudely-drawn worlds. Toy company Mattel bought into it, but VPL was never more than a novelty.

1990

Devices including “Virtuality” launched a VR boom as developers made immersive games to be played on heavy headsets. Sega introduced VR arcade games to its consoles, but the graphics did not match the hardware and VR retreated to industrial uses and functional applications.– Independent