Index

 Introduction to the device;

 History

 Who invented/developed it;

 It’s importance in society.

 Conclusion
Introduction

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely

different from the real world. Applications of virtual reality can include
entertainment (i.e. video games) and educational purposes (i.e. medical or military
training). Other, distinct types of VR style technology include augmented reality and
mixed reality.

Currently standard virtual reality systems use either virtual reality headsets or multi-
projected environments to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations
that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual environment. A person using
virtual reality equipment is able to look around the artificial world, move around in
it, and interact with virtual features or items. The effect is commonly created by VR
headsets consisting of a head-mounted display with a small screen in front of the
eyes, but can also be created through specially designed rooms with multiple large
screens. Virtual reality typically incorporates auditory and video feedback, but may
also allow other types of sensory and force feedback through haptic technology.

Etymology

"Virtual" has had the meaning of "being something in essence or effect, though not
actually or in fact" since the mid-1400s. The term "virtual" has been used in the
computer sense of "not physically existing but made to appear by software" since
1959.

In 1938, French avant-garde playwright Antonin Artaud described the illusory nature
of characters and objects in the theatre as "la réalité virtuelle" in a collection of
essays, Le Théâtre et son double. The English translation of this book, published in
1958 as The Theater and its Double, is the earliest published use of the term "virtual
reality". The term "artificial reality", coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since
the 1970s. The term "virtual reality" was first used in a science fiction context in The
Judas Mandala, a 1982 novel by Damien Broderick.
Forms and methods

One method by which virtual reality can be realized is simulation-based virtual

reality. Driving simulators, for example, give the driver on board the impression of
actually driving an actual vehicle by predicting vehicular motion caused by driver
input and feeding back corresponding visual, motion and audio cues to the driver.

With avatar image-based virtual reality, people can join the virtual environment in
the form of real video as well as an avatar. One can participate in the 3D distributed
virtual environment as form of either a conventional avatar or a real video. A user
can select own type of participation based on the system capability.

In projector-based virtual reality, modeling of the real environment plays a vital role
in various virtual reality applications, such as robot navigation, construction
modeling, and airplane simulation. Image-based virtual reality systems have been
gaining popularity in computer graphics and computer vision communities. In
generating realistic models, it is essential to accurately register acquired 3D data;
usually, a camera is used for modeling small objects at a short distance.

Desktop-based virtual reality involves displaying a 3D virtual world on a regular

desktop display without use of any specialized positional tracking equipment. Many
modern first-person video games can be used as an example, using various triggers,
responsive characters, and other such interactive devices to make the user feel as
though they are in a virtual world. A common criticism of this form of immersion is
that there is no sense of peripheral vision, limiting the user's ability to know what is
happening around them.

A head-mounted display (HMD) fully immerses the user in a virtual world. A virtual
reality headset typically includes two small high resolution OLED or LCD monitors
which provide separate images for each eye for stereoscopic graphics rendering a 3D
virtual world, a binaural audio system, positional and rotational real-time head
tracking for six degrees of movement. Options include motion controls with haptic
feedback for physically interacting within the virtual world in an intuitive way with
little to no abstraction and an omnidirectional treadmill for more freedom of physical
movement allowing the user to perform locomotive motion in any direction.

Augmented reality (AR) is a type of virtual reality technology that blends what the
user sees in their real surroundings with digital content generated by computer
software. The additional software-generated images with the virtual scene typically
enhance how the real surroundings look in some way. AR systems layer virtual
information over a camera live feed into a headset or smartglasses or through a
mobile device giving the user the ability to view three-dimensional images.
Mixed reality (MR) is the merging of the real world and virtual worlds to produce new
environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and
interact in real time.

A cyberspace is sometimes defined as a networked virtual reality.

Simulated reality is a hypothetical virtual reality as truly immersive as the actual

reality, enabling an advanced lifelike experience or even virtual eternity.

A Omni treadmill being used at a VR convention.

A Missouri National Guardsman looks into a VR training head-mounted display at Fort

Leonard Wood in 2015
History
The exact origins of virtual reality are disputed, partly because of how difficult it has
been to formulate a definition for the concept of an alternative existence. The
development of perspective in Renaissance Europe created convincing depictions of
spaces that did not exist, in what has been referred to as the "multiplying of artificial
worlds". Other elements of virtual reality appeared as early as the 1860s. Antonin
Artaud took the view that illusion was not distinct from reality, advocating that
spectators at a play should suspend disbelief and regard the drama on stage as
reality. The first references to the more modern concept of virtual reality came from
science fiction.

View-Master, a stereoscopic visual simulator, was introduced in 1939

VR in the 20th Century

Morton Heilig wrote in the 1950s of an "Experience Theatre" that could encompass all
the senses in an effective manner, thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen
activity. He built a prototype of his vision dubbed the Sensorama in 1962, along with
five short films to be displayed in it while engaging multiple senses (sight, sound,
smell, and touch). Predating digital computing, the Sensorama was a mechanical
device. Heilig also developed what he referred to as the "Telesphere Mask" (patented
in 1960). The patent application described the device as "a telescopic television
apparatus for individual use...The spectator is given a complete sensation of reality,
i.e. moving three dimensional images which may be in colour, with 100% peripheral
vision, binaural sound, scents and air breezes."
In 1968, Ivan Sutherland, with the help of his students including Bob Sproull, created
what was widely considered to be the first head-mounted display system for use in
immersive simulation applications. It was primitive both in terms of user interface
and visual realism, and the HMD to be worn by the user was so heavy that it had to
be suspended from the ceiling. The graphics comprising the virtual environment were
simple wire-frame model rooms. The formidable appearance of the device inspired
its name, The Sword of Damocles.

1970–1990
The virtual reality industry mainly provided VR devices for medical, flight simulation,
automobile industry design, and military training purposes from 1970 to 1990.
David Em became the first artist to produce navigable virtual worlds at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1977 to 1984.[8] The Aspen Movie Map, a crude
virtual tour in which users could wander the streets of Aspen in one of the three
modes (summer, winter, and polygons), was created at the MIT in 1978.
In 1979, Eric Howlett developed the Large Expanse, Extra Perspective (LEEP) optical
system. The combined system created a stereoscopic image with a field of view wide
enough to create a convincing sense of space. The users of the system have been
impressed by the sensation of depth (field of view) in the scene and the
corresponding realism.
The original LEEP system was redesigned for NASA's Ames Research Center in 1985 for
their first virtual reality installation, the VIEW (Virtual Interactive Environment
Workstation) by Scott Fisher. The LEEP system provides the basis for most of the
modern virtual reality headsets.

NASA Ames's 1985 VIEW headset

By the 1980s, the term "virtual reality" was popularized by Jaron Lanier, one of the
modern pioneers of the field. Lanier had founded the company VPL Research in 1985.
VPL Research has developed several VR devices like the DataGlove, the EyePhone,
and the AudioSphere. VPL licensed the DataGlove technology to Mattel, which used it
to make the Power Glove, an early affordable VR device.

A VPL Research DataSuit, a full-body outfit with sensors for measuring the movement
of arms, legs, and trunk. Developed circa 1989. Displayed at the Nissho Iwai
showroom in Tokyo

Atari founded a research lab for virtual reality in 1982, but the lab was closed after
two years due to the Atari Shock (North American video game crash of 1983).
However, its hired employees, such as Tom Zimmerman, Scott Fisher, Jaron Lanier,
Michael Naimark, and Brenda Laurel, kept their research and development on VR-
related technologies.
In 1988, the Cyberspace Project at Autodesk was the first to implement VR on a low-
cost personal computer . The project leader Eric Gullichsen left in 1990 to found
Sense8 Corporation and develop the WorldToolKit virtual reality SDK, which offered
the first real time graphics with Texture mapping on a PC, and was widely used
throughout industry and academia

1990–2000
The 1990s saw the first widespread commercial releases of consumer headsets. In
1992, for instance, Computer Gaming World predicted "affordable VR by 1994".

In 1991, Sega announced the Sega VR headset for arcade games and the Mega Drive
console. It used LCD screens in the visor, stereo headphones, and inertial sensors
that allowed the system to track and react to the movements of the user's head. In
the same year, Virtuality launched and went on to become the first mass-produced,
networked, multiplayer VR entertainment system that was released in many
countries, including a dedicated VR arcade at Embarcadero Center. Costing up to
$73,000 per multi-pod Virtuality system, they featured headsets and exoskeleton
gloves that gave one of the first "immersive" VR experiences.
That same year, Carolina Cruz-Neira, Daniel J. Sandin and Thomas A. DeFanti from
the Electronic Visualization Laboratory created the first cubic immersive room, the
Cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE). Developed as Cruz-Neira's PhD thesis, it
involved a multi-projected environment, similar to the holodeck, allowing people to
see their own bodies in relation to others in the room.[18][19] Antonio Medina, a MIT
graduate and NASA scientist, designed a virtual reality system to "drive" Mars rovers
from Earth in apparent real time despite the substantial delay of Mars-Earth-Mars
signals.
In 1992, Nicole Stenger created Angels, the first real-time interactive immersive
movie where the interaction was facilitated with a dataglove and high-resolution
goggles. That same year, Louis Rosenberg created the virtual fixtures system at the
U.S. Air Force's Armstrong Labs using a full upper-body exoskeleton, enabling a
physically realistic mixed reality in 3D. The system enabled the overlay of physically
real 3D virtual objects registered with a user's direct view of the real world,
producing the first true augmented reality experience enabling sight, sound, and
touch.
By 1994, Sega released the Sega VR-1 motion simulator arcade attraction,[23][24] in
SegaWorld amusement arcades. It was able to track head movement and featured 3D
polygon graphics in stereoscopic 3D, powered by the Sega Model 1 arcade system
board. Apple released QuickTime VR, which, despite using the term "VR", was unable
to represent virtual reality, and instead displayed 360 photographic panoramas.
Nintendo's Virtual Boy console was released in 1995. A group in Seattle created public
demonstrations of a "CAVE-like" 270 degree immersive projection room called the
Virtual Environment Theater, produced by entrepreneurs Chet Dagit and Bob
Jacobson. Forte released the VFX1, a PC-powered virtual reality headset that same
year.
In 1999, entrepreneur Philip Rosedale formed Linden Lab with an initial focus on the
development of VR hardware. In its earliest form, the company struggled to produce
a commercial version of "The Rig", which was realized in prototype form as a clunky
steel contraption with several computer monitors that users could wear on their
shoulders. The concept was later adapted into the personal computer-based, 3D
virtual world program Second Life.
It’s importance in society

There are many people out there that are incapable of living a normal life. They
deserve to be able to live their life to the fullest, to explore, and to experience the
wonder of the world. Virtual reality can be that outlet for the disabled, the
housebound, the bedridden. A way to experience what the able-bodied often take for
granted.

Piotr Łój, the founder of Virtual Dream Project, is one example of using virtual
reality to aid the relief of young oncology patients by whisking them away from their
current reality.

Embrace the Life VR, provides a platform designed for wheelchair bound individuals
to simulate life in a wheelchair in order to decrease anxiety and even increase social
integration.
San Diego’s Virtual Reality Medical Center is consistently developing new ways to use
VR, in combination with biofeedback and cognitive behavioral therapy, to treat
phobias, anxiety, pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more.

Additionally, proper healthcare is also lacking in many parts of the world as access to
trained medical professionals is very challenging, and sometimes, impossible. Virtual
reality can help increase access to medical professionals in the developing world and
overall improve healthcare on a global scale.
Conclusion

With this work, I learned a lot more about

Virtual Reality and it’s history, I want to thank
my teacher for allowing me to do this work!