La virtual reality Every day it is more immersed in our lives, yet many people have only been aware of its existence for a few years. What they don't know is that this technology has a great history that goes back 2 centuries. Did you imagine this? Let's see how it all began and what has been the Chronological preview of virtual reality.
In the 19th century, the Panoramic Painting, what could be considered one of the first vestiges of virtual reality. It was one of the earliest representations of an artistic manifestation that tried to generate an enveloping sensation similar to that of a panoramic photography of the present day.
In addition, the first stereoscope was invented in 1838 by the British Charles Wheatstone and consisted of a kind of glasses that simulated a 3D image.
1929 — Link Trainer: this year, Edward Link created the first Link Trainer (also known as Blue Box), a mechanical flight simulator with which more than 500,000 soldiers of the North American army were trained.
1957 — Sensorama: it was an immersive technology invented by Morton Heilig based on cinematographic techniques, but offering advanced multi-sensory theater experiences for its time.
1961 — Headsight: this project was developed by Phillco Corp. and consisted of a helmet that incorporated a screen and had head position control. This project was also used for military training.
1963 — The Teleyeglasses: Hugo Gernsbac Surprise the world with this portable television attached to the head like glasses, very similar to the current ones VR glasses.
1965 — The Sword of Damocles: Ivan Sutherland describes for the first time the concept of virtual reality. Later Sutherland along with David Evans they would develop the first program designed to create virtual worlds with 3D images, stored data and accelerators. The helmet and computers used at the time are so big and heavy that the helmet hangs from the ceiling, giving it the nickname The Sword of Damacles (Sword of Damocles).
1982 — Tron: the virtual reality It comes to the big screen thanks to the science-fiction classic Tron. Its aesthetics have marked how the latest devices of virtual reality.
1982 — Data Glove and SubRoc-3D: Jaron Lanier develops gloves with sensors capable of recognizing the movement and position of the fingers, and they bore by name Data Glove. This same year, SAW presents On ROC-3D, the first video game on the market with stereoscopic imaging, with glasses and an arcade machine.
1992 — The Lawnmower Man: Premiere of the film The Lawn Mower directed by Brett Leonard, where a scientist manages to increase in an extraordinary way the intelligence of a mentally handicapped person through a combination of drugs and virtual reality.
1993 — SEGA VR: The company develops some virtual reality glasses which were exhibited at several video game fairs, but were never marketed due to various problems (development of exclusive games, health problems, etc.).
1995 — Virtual Boy: The company Nintendo market your virtual reality device Virtual Boy in the US and Japan, with very little success among the public. The device had a double base that made it necessary to rest it on a table, which made it uncomfortable; in addition, the few titles developed and the lack of sensors to recognize movements, were some factors that contributed to its failure.
1999 — The Matrix: The film The Matrix was one of the great exponents of the beginning of a new era of virtual reality. Like Tron in the 80s, The Matrix teaches the general public the possibilities that virtual reality will offer in the future.
2000 — Second Live: This video game offered the user a virtual world in which anything was possible thanks to the use of avatars. This simulation became very popular all over the world because people could interact in it in multiple ways, which opened the way to the virtual worlds that will be developed later
2012 — Palmer Luckey: The prototype Oculus, was developed by the Californian Luckey through a campaign in Kickstarter, and combined the vision of 3D volumetry in a 360º environment, in an immersive way. In the year 2014 was bought by Facebook for 2 trillion dollars.
2014 — The start of the great race: After the birth of Oculus, major companies in the technological world began to develop their prototypes of virtual reality glasses. This year Facebook presents Crystal Cove Prototype, the first Oculus prototype with a case. Steam develops its Valve VR prototype (future HTC Vive), Sony Project Morpheus begins (future PlayStation VR); Samsung in collaboration with Oculus Develop the Samsung Gear Innovator Edition and Google Presents the Google Cardboard.
2016 — The Year of Virtual Reality: Already with several models on the market, major brands are starting to announce the release in 2016 of commercial versions of their virtual reality devices, such as Oculus Rift and HTC VIVE.
Without a doubt, the race of the virtual reality it has been long and full of ups and downs for large technology companies, which in the end managed to develop successful devices that are in high demand by users, and we have no doubt that they will continue to surprise us with great advances and innovations.
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