This document provides a history of virtual reality technology, beginning with early concepts from ancient times and progressing to modern VR. Key developments include early optical devices, head mounted displays in the 1960s, VR research labs in the 1980s, haptic interfaces and data gloves in the 1990s, and cave automatic virtual environments. The document discusses several pioneering researchers and companies in the field and notes that entertainment applications have often driven immersive technology advances, though the dream of virtual reality spaces has a long history.

1. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Virtual Reality History

2. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
First, some class stuff
• Paper critique on Friday
– Look on web page

3. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Today’s Goals
• Provide some historical context.
• Where did VR technology come from?
• What applications drove its development?
• Who are some luminaries in the field?

4. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History
• Remarkably, VR concepts predate
computer graphics and modern VR (HMD,
tracking, etc.) arose simultaneously with
computer imagery.

5. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History Cont’d…
• Prehistory
– Cave paintings
– Some researchers believe that the
images animate when shown with
flickering torch light!
• 3000BC - Egyptians
– First lenses
• 3000BC – Asian shadow play
• ~450BC – Mo Tzu
– Pinhole projection onto screen
• ~300BC – Euclid
– Writes The Optics
• 200AD in China or
1515 – Da Vinci
– Magic lantern projector?
From http://www.precinemahistory.net

6. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History Cont’d…
• 1671 – Kircher
– Magic lantern
– A later example
• 1674 – de Chales
– Successive glass slides
• 1830s -Stroboscope
• 1838 – Wheatstone
– Stereo viewer
From http://www.precinemahistory.net

7. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History Cont’d…
• 1860s – zoetrope
• 1879 –
– Zoopraxiscope
• Painted images on disc
• Movies
– 1888 – first movie
– 1895: Skladanowsky –
Bioscop
– 1895: Lumiere –
Cinematographe
– 1896: Edison – Vitascope
– 1902 – special effects
• A Trip to the Moon
– start 8:38
From http://www.precinemahistory.net

8. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History Cont’d…
• 1916 – Pratt
– Head-mounted
periscope display and
gun
– Augmented reality
precursor

9. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History Cont’d…
• 1929 – Link
– Mechanical flight
simulator

10. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History Cont’d…
• 1956 – Heilig
– Sensorama
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSINEBZNCks
– Multimodal display of a
motorcycle ride through
Brooklyn
• Sight
• Sound
• Smell
• Vibration
– 1957 HMD patent

11. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Early History Cont’d…
• 1961 – Philco
– Telepresence with a
HMD
• Remote camera
– Magnetic head tracker
– Single CRT

12. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Birth of Modern VR
• 1963 – Sutherland
– Interactive graphics
– Sketchpad
• 1965
– Ultimate display paper
• 1968
– A Head-mounted Three-
Dimensional Display
• 1970 – Krueger
– Videoplace - movie
• 1974 – Jim Clark
– Ph.D. on HMD’s

13. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
The Next Wave
• 1980’s – Scott
Fisher (NASA-
Ames)
– VIEW project –
– movies – start 2:05
• 1980’s – Jaron
Lanier
– “Virtual Reality”
• Tom Furness
– Super cockpit

14. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
More displays
• 90s - Fakespace
boom
– High resolution
– ergonomic

15. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Force-feedback Interfaces
Haptic Display Grope III
© Fred Brooks, University of North Carolina
The Force-Feedback Project, which began in 1967, first
focused on the development of a system to support
scientific visualization in the area of molecular docking,
the Docker application. This application provides graphic
(wire-frame) representations of molecules and their inter-
atomic forces to allow a user to adjust the relative position
and orientation of molecules while searching for minimum
energy binding sites.
A series of systems have been developed, evolving from a
2-D system, through a 3-D system and a 6-D system for a
simple docking task, to a full 6-D molecular docking
system called GROPE-III. These later systems have
employed a modified Model E-3 Argonne Remote
Manipulator (ARM).

16. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Gloves
• 1977 – Sayre
– Light tube attenuation
to measure bend
• 1981 – Grimes (Bell)
– Bend, tactile sensors
• 1984 – VPL
– VPL DataGlove
• 1993 Utah/MIT
– Dextrous Hand Master
(Hollerbach)
Dextrous Hand Master, Exos

17. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
CAVE displays
• 1992 – EVL
– Users in a projected
room
– CAVE movie

18. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
CAVE displays
CyberSphere (1998)
The scientists Eyre and Eureka in VR-Systems UK
have been researching a CyberSphere, a device,
which consists of a large, translucent sphere
containing the user.
The images are distortion-corrected and then
projected on the surface of the sphere, allowing the
user a full 360 degree field of view.
It also allows the user to move around in the world,
by walking inside the ball, which will move in
response to the users movements.
Movie
© VR-Systems, United Kingdom

19. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Companies
• 1984 – VPL
• 1987 – Polhemus
• 1989 – Division
– Bought tech from UNC-CH
• 1989 – Mattel
– Nintendo powerglove
• 1990 – W
– VR arcade

20. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Current Companies
• Sensics
• Intersense
• Raytheon
• Nintendo
• Track-IR

21. CS6360 – Virtual Reality
David Johnson
Summary
• Entertainment has often driven
“immersive” advances
• The dream of a VR space has a long
history
• High-quality elements of VR are now
consumer products