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This is the final article within a series of blog posts on augmented reality and its implication for consumers and marketers alike. If you missed out on the first four Big AR posts, you can begin here.

Welcome! If you are reading this article, it's likely on a mobile device. You see, it is a growing trend that, in leisure, citizens of the Internet are using their smartphones and tablets more than their desktops (see below). Even more so, the gap between mobile and desktop in the workday continues to grow smaller by the day. It's easy to explain how mobile has slowly crept into the forefront, dominating most of our screen-time: it's simple, it's portable, and it's accessible within just moments. Your content has never been more available to you than it is today on your mobile device.

In the Big AR series, we have discussed the implications of augmented reality in its current state, on marketers, on gaming, and on the two current dominating mobile platforms... But we haven't discussed the future of augmented reality. That is, the future of a platform so aligned with our current values as marketers, consumers, and creators alike - in prioritizing mobile-friendly, highly personalized, accessible experiences, that it seems obvious the platform will soon shift how we experience and interact with our world - even more than smartphones did (only) ten years ago!

Your Content. Unleashed.

Yes, content is more accessible than ever but it's confined to a physical space. It is forever boxed in. To your phone, your tablet, your PC. The rectangular box of the boobtube (TV for you young folk). Content is even confined to the pages of a book. Its knowledge forever trapped within the same closed, defined pages of which, through the eagerness to learn, it can promise to free your mind. That is, until now. Or soon.

Let's do an experiment! Look at your phone screen. Or your computer screen. Or your Kindle screen (I don't judge). Whatever you're reading this from. Look away from the words. The sentences. Glimpse at the confining rectangle. Now hold it up to your face... A pixel-y mess. But, the premise of the experiment, is that your content is closer than ever before. Just imagine...

Now here's a tricky one! Imagine your screen was transparent. The content held over your world. An unobtrusive platform. An overlay. An opportunity.

Envisioning the Platform

The potential in seeing what could be; where we could go, is that we, as marketers, creators, and tech evangelists, can foresee the future and potential structure of a universal, worldwide platform. Augmented reality will one day be used by every child and adult today who uses a smartphone, and by holding your phone to your face, by outlining the current trends of the market, by researching on which companies are creating the future, you are investing in being ahead of the curve. And that is an infinite future of potential in marketing on AR and in creating AR experiences.

We're in an interesting time. Flip phones saw their demise over 10 years ago and we could possibly be experiencing the dying breath of our screens - smartphones, tablets, PCs, and TV monitors everywhere may be in danger.

And that is the future of augmented reality. What, today, may simply be the prospect or concept of doorways that open up worlds and universes on your favourite device can become a glistening truth, a keystone, of that very platform tomorrow.

From your personal assistant. To your favourite Pokemon. From your productivity apps. To lifestyle, utilities, and file managers. On and within the world you live, extending as far as your eyes can see. Through glasses, contact lenses, perhaps even through brain-machine interface, you are no longer slouching to read a screen. You are finally liberated from the boxed in screen.

So who can provide us with this future of our content unleashed? Let's talk contenders. Who are in the running to strap their branded glasses and other apparatus to your face... retina... brain?!

Big Brother, Big Fruit, and Big Blue Screen of Death

Yes, that title does refer to Google, Apple, and Microsoft. No shade at all. The big three are the most likely to succeed in creating an augmented experience that can reach the general population quickly by marketing to their brand evangelist demographic. Targeting super-fans means less need to persuade the mainstream consciousness to consider the new tech as the early majority who hop onto the technology bandwagon will follow right after techies. The same could not be said with certainty for other companies, especially recent startups tackling the world of tech for the first time.

With Google, we've already seen their innovation in the field. Google Glass was very much ahead of its time. Too ahead, in fact, that it scared the public. Privacy concerns and price positioning killed the device. But it does look like it is back - and if it's not, it most likely will be soon. Google spent a lot on that research and development and it will only help them, in cohesion with their learnings from their phone AR, Project Tango, to solidify a space in glasses AR.

Apple is keeping mum about their wearable, but it's clear that wearable AR tech is on their mind with recent patents popping up and rumours of a collaboration with Carl Zeiss to create fashionable glasses in time for launch. On top of that, ARKit (Apple's AR software platform) is already creating emotional experiences just ahead of its launch on iOS 11 (see below), meaning we'll surely be seeing creativity and innovation in Apple's side of the ring, especially as the video below was framed solely through an iPhone screen. Imagine where we'll go with a full experience in our frame of view!

Microsoft has gone all out on framing augmented reality as the future of mobile tech computing. They've even gone and combined virtual and augmented worlds for us, creating perhaps the first mainstream notion of mixed reality on the market with their HoloLens headset and dedication to their futuristic Windows Mixed Reality operating system. Something that will be even more necessary once bite-sized apps and more fleshed out experiences in AR begin to beg for a cohesive, unifying user interface to define the platform.

The Secretive: Magic Leap

Magic Leap, founded by Rony Abovitz, is estimated to be worth over $4.5 billion USD, and yet they have not released a single product. The secretive startup has been creating buzz for years, hyping their first mixed reality product, letting investors in for sneak peeks and previews here and there. In the AR/MR circle, Magic Leap has been maintaining a momentum of hype for months on end, but what will it lead up to product-wise? No one knows. But we do have a glimpse of the software (see below).

The Visionary: Neuralink

Upon realizing the very real threat of artificial intelligence and where it could go (see: potential death to humanity), Elon Musk (Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX) has founded Neuralink, a neurotech company looking to uncover the secrets of communicating with the human brain. What will start as a medical aid to those with degenerative brain diseases (like Alzheimers) through providing patients with extended memory, can one day become unlocked output potential for humanity. Think: typing with your brain ( like the Facebook endeavour linked earlier), or even better, sharing memories and moments in augmented reality without having to strap anything to your body! Futuristic. If you're any interested in the radical ways a brain-machine interface can transform the human body (beyond just AR/VR functionality), be sure to read Wait But Why's writeup on Neuralink and the implications it has for society. It's lengthy, but it's accessible to all readers and it's worth it.

Along with these high earning, high dreaming, and highly-insane companies, there are boundless others that are pushing for creating innovative AR experiences ahead of the curve. It goes on and on. And, thus, it is the right time for marketers to consider how we can best make use of this emerging platform before the early majority latches on. As innovators and tech evangelists, we have the upper hand: the opportunity to help shape a blooming industry, to opt into a dawning era, and for the luckiest of us, to create beautiful, human experiences with it.

A nd I'll leave it at that. This was the final post in Big AR. I really hope this series helped enlighten you on the amazing potential for augmented reality as a consumer and marketer and perhaps open up some pathways for research in the months to come.

This topic is constantly expanding and developing with tech advancements, even by the day! So I will be returning to augmented reality as a whole some other time. In my next article, I'll be discussing Magic Leap specifically and how it reinvigorated a slowing industry so if you're interested in that secretive investor-magnet, it'll be a good read.

I do plan on coming back to Big AR and making some revisions here and there, so please do let me know where I could improve and how I could make this material more succinct and reader-friendly! Feel free to leave a comment below or open a discussion on my Twitter!

Until then, I plan on maintaining a post schedule about once every two weeks as a writer for Hacker Noon, so feel free to stick around and follow me on Medium.

Dream big!

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Big AR: The Future of Augmented Reality - Hacker Noon

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This is the final article within a series of blog posts on augmented reality and its implication for consumers and marketers alike. If you missed out on the first four Big AR posts, you can begin here . Welcome! If you are reading this article, it's likely on a mobile device.

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A Guide to Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality turns the environment around you into a digital interface by placing virtual objects in the real world, in real-time. Augmented Reality can be seen through a wide variety of experiences. We distinguish 3 main categories of Augmented Reality tools.

Augmented Reality 3D viewers, like Augment, allow users to place life-size 3D models in your environment with or without the use of trackers. Trackers are simple images that 3D models can be attached to in Augmented Reality.

Augmented Reality browsers enrich your camera display with contextual information. For example, you can point your smartphone at a building to display its history or estimated value.

The last way that Augmented Reality is generally experienced is through gaming, creating immersive gaming experiences that utilize your actual surroundings. Imagine shooting games with zombies walking in your own bedroom! The biggest use of Augmented Reality gaming to-date is Pokémon Go, allowing users to catch virtual Pokémon who are hidden throughout a map of the real world.
Download our free Augmented Reality eBook to learn more

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Augmented Reality turns the environment around you into a digital interface by placing virtual objects in the real world, in real-time. Augmented Reality can be seen through a wide variety of experiences. We distinguish 3 main categories of Augmented Reality tools.

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How does VR work? How does a virtual reality headset make you think that you're sitting in a spaceship in a distant galaxy when you are, in fact, actually about to bump into the kitchen counter? Well, with the army of VR devices expanding, we'll be explaining how they actually work.

While devices generally take the same form, how they project imaging in front of our eyes varies greatly. The likes of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift provide PC-based operations, though major players such as Google and Samsung offer more affordable, smartphone-based headsets. Sony has also managed to crack the console scene with its Playstation VR.

Standalone VR is something you'll be hearing more of too - in 2018 Oculus will launch the Oculus Go, and Lenovo's standalone Daydream headset is also expected.

Once your headset and power source are secured, some kind of input is also required for you to connect - whether this is through head tracking, controllers, hand tracking, voice, on-device buttons or trackpads.

Total immersion is what everyone making a VR headset, game or app is aiming towards - making the virtual reality experience so real that we forget the computer, headgear and accessories and act exactly as we would in the real world. So how do we get there?

The basics

VR headsets like Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR are often referred to as HMDs, which simply means they are head mounted displays. Even with no audio or hand tracking, holding up Google Cardboard to place your smartphone's display in front of your face can be enough to get you half-immersed in a virtual world.
The future: Virtual reality versus augmented reality

The goal here is to create what appears to be a life size, 3D virtual environment without the boundaries we usually associate with TV or computer screens. So whatever way you look, the screen mounted to your face follows you. This is unlike augmented reality, which overlays graphics onto your view of the real world.

Video is sent from the console or computer to the headset via a HDMI cable in the case of headsets such as HTC's Vive and the Rift. For Google's Daydream headset and the Samsung Gear VR, it's already on the smartphone slotted into the headset.

VR headsets use either two feeds sent to one display or two LCD displays, one per eye. There are also lenses which are placed between your eyes and the pixels, which is why the devices are often called goggles. In some instances, these can be adjusted to match the distance between your eyes, varying from person to person.

These lenses focus and reshape the picture for each eye and create a stereoscopic 3D image by angling the two 2D images to mimic how each of our two eyes views the world ever-so-slightly differently. Try closing one eye then the other to see individual objects dance about from side to side and you get the idea behind this.

One important way VR headsets can increase immersion is to increase the field of view i.e. how wide the picture is. A 360-degree display would be too expensive and unnecessary. Most high-end headsets make do with 100 or 110 degree field of view, which is wide enough to do the trick.

And for the resulting picture to be at all convincing, a minimum frame rate of around 60 frames per second is needed to avoid stuttering or users feeling sick. The current crop of VR headsets go way beyond this - Oculus is capable of 90fps, for instance, while Sony's PlayStation VR manages 120fps.
Hands-on: Google Daydream View review
Head tracking

Head tracking means that when you wear a VR headset, the picture in front of you shifts as you look up, down and side to side or angle your head. A system called 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) plots your head in terms of your X, Y and Z axis to measure head movements forward and backwards, side to side and shoulder to shoulder, otherwise known as pitch, yaw and roll.

There are a few different internal components which can be used in a head-tracking system, such as a gyroscope, accelerometer and a magnetometer. Sony's PSVR also uses nine LEDs dotted around the headset to provide 360 degree head tracking thanks to an external camera monitoring these signals, while Oculus has 20 not as bright lights.

Head-tracking tech needs low latency to be effective - we're talking 50 milliseconds or less or we will detect the lag between when we turn our head and when the VR environment changes. The Oculus Rift has an impressively minimised lag of just 30ms. Lag can also be a problem for any motion tracking inputs, such as PS Move-style controllers that measure our hand and arm movements.

Finally, headphones can be used to increase the sense of immersion. Binaural or 3D audio can be used by app and game developers to tap into VR headsets' head-tracking technology to take advantage of this and give the wearer the sense that sound is coming from behind, to the side of them or in the distance.

Motion tracking

Head tracking is one big advantage the premium headsets have over the likes of Cardboard other mobile VR headsets. But the big VR players are still working out motion tracking. When you look down with a VR headset on the first thing you want to do is see your hands in a virtual space.

Headset head-to-head: HTC Vive versus Oculus Rift
For a while, we've seen the Leap Motion accessory - which uses an infrared sensor to track hand movements - strapped to the front of Oculus dev kits. We've also tried a few experiments with Kinect 2 cameras tracking our flailing bodies. But now we have exciting input options from Oculus, Valve and Sony.

Oculus Touch is a set of wireless controllers designed to make you feel like you're using your own hands in VR. You grab each controller and use buttons, thumbsticks and triggers during VR games. So, for instance, to shoot a gun you squeeze on the hand trigger. There is also a matrix of sensors on each controller to detect gestures such as pointing and waving.

It's a pretty similar set-up to Valve's Lighthouse positional tracking system and HTC's controllers for its Vive headset. It involves two base stations around the room which sweep the area with lasers. These can detect the precise position of your head and both hands based on the timing of when they hit each photocell sensor on both the headset and around each handheld controller. Like Oculus Touch, these also feature physical buttons too and incredibly you can have two Lighthouse systems in the same space to track multiple users.

Other input methods can include anything from hooking an Xbox controller or joystick up to your PC, voice controls, smart gloves and treadmills such as the Virtuix Omni, which allow you to simulate walking around a VR environment with clever in-game redirections.

And when it comes to tracking your physical position within a room, Oculus now offers an experience to match the HTC Vive, which it didn't do out the door. Rift owners now have the option to purchase a third sensor for $79 and add more coverage to their VR play area.

The problem, though, is that this still isn't on par with HTC. While two SteamVR sensors for the HTC Vive can deliver a tracked play space of up to 225 square feet, two Constellation sensor cameras from Oculus only provides coverage of 25 square feet, with a third camera sending the recommended space goes up to 64 square feet. That may change with Oculus Santa Cruz, the company's hi-spec standalone headset.

Sony is also hunting around this area, if a recent patent is anything to go by. The filing details a VR tracking system based on light and mirrors that uses a beam projector to determine the player's position, though whether such a feature would appear on the current device or second iteration of PSVR (or not at all) is all speculative at this stage.

Eye tracking

Eye tracking is possibly the final piece of the VR puzzle. It's not available on the Rift, Vive or PS VR but it will feature in FOVE's very promising VR headset. We also saw Tobii's eye-tracking tech in action in a HTC Vive. So how does it work?

Well, an infrared sensor monitor's your eyes inside the headset so FOVE knows where your eyes are looking in virtual reality. The main advantage of this - apart from allowing in-game characters to more precisely react to where you're looking - is to make depth of field more realistic.

In standard VR headsets, everything is in pin-sharp focus which isn't how we're used to experiencing the world. If our eyes look at an object in the distance, for instance, the foreground blurs and vice versa. By tracking our eyes, FOVE's graphics engine can simulate this in a 3D space in VR. That's right, blur can be good.

Headsets still need hi-res displays to avoid the effect of looking through a grid. Also what our eyes focus on needs to look as life-like as possible. Without eye tracking, with everything in focus as you move your eyes - but not your head - around a scene, simulation sickness is more likely. Your brain knows that something doesn't match up.

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How does VR work? How does a virtual reality headset make you think that you're sitting in a spaceship in a distant galaxy when you are, in fact, actually about to bump into the kitchen counter? Well, with the army of VR devices expanding, we'll be explaining how they actually work.

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One of the biggest confusions in the world of augmented reality is the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality. Both are earning a lot of media attention and are promising tremendous growth. So what is the difference between virtual reality vs. augmented reality?
What is Virtual Reality?
Virtual reality (VR) is an artificial, computer-generated simulation or recreation of a real life environment or situation. It immerses the user by making them feel like they are experiencing the simulated reality firsthand, primarily by stimulating their vision and hearing.

VR is typically achieved by wearing a headset like Facebook's Oculus equipped with the technology, and is used prominently in two different ways:

To create and enhance an imaginary reality for gaming, entertainment, and play (Such as video and computer games, or 3D movies, head mounted display).

To enhance training for real life environments by creating a simulation of reality where people can practice beforehand (Such as flight simulators for pilots).

Virtual reality is possible through a coding language known as VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) which can be used to create a series of images, and specify what types of interactions are possible for them.
What is Augmented Reality?
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that layers computer-generated enhancements atop an existing reality in order to make it more meaningful through the ability to interact with it. AR is developed into apps and used on mobile devices to blend digital components into the real world in such a way that they enhance one another, but can also be told apart easily.

AR technology is quickly coming into the mainstream. It is used to display score overlays on telecasted sports games and pop out 3D emails, photos or text messages on mobile devices. Leaders of the tech industry are also using AR to do amazing and revolutionary things with holograms and motion activated commands.
Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality
Augmented reality and virtual reality are inverse reflections of one in another with what each technology seeks to accomplish and deliver for the user. Virtual reality offers a digital recreation of a real life setting, while augmented reality delivers virtual elements as an overlay to the real world.
How are Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Similar? Technology
Augmented and virtual realities both leverage some of the same types of technology, and they each exist to serve the user with an enhanced or enriched experience.
Entertainment
Both technologies enable experiences that are becoming more commonly expected and sought after for entertainment purposes. While in the past they seemed merely a figment of a science fiction imagination, new artificial worlds come to life under the user's control, and deeper layers of interaction with the real world are also achievable. Leading tech moguls are investing and developing new adaptations, improvements, and releasing more and more products and apps that support these technologies for the increasingly savvy users.
Science and Medicine
Additionally, both virtual and augmented realities have great potential in changing the landscape of the medical field by making things such as remote surgeries a real possibility. These technologies been already been used to treat and heal psychological conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
How do Augmented and Virtual Realities Differ?
Augmented reality enhances experiences by adding virtual components such as digital images, graphics, or sensations as a new layer of interaction with the real world. Contrastingly, virtual reality creates its own reality that is completely computer generated and driven.
Delivery Method
Virtual Reality is usually delivered to the user through a head-mounted, or hand-held controller. This equipment connects people to the virtual reality, and allows them to control and navigate their actions in an environment meant to simulate the real world.

Augmented reality is being used more and more in mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones, and tablets to change how the real world and digital images, graphics intersect and interact.
How do they work together?
It is not always virtual reality vs. augmented reality- they do not always operate independently of one another, and in fact are often blended together to generate an even more immersing experience. For example, haptic feedback-which is the vibration and sensation added to interaction with graphics-is considered an augmentation. However, it is commonly used within a virtual reality setting in order to make the experience more lifelike though touch.

Virtual reality and augmented reality are great examples of experiences and interactions fueled by the desire to become immersed in a simulated land for entertainment and play, or to add a new dimension of interaction between digital devices and the real world. Alone or blended together, they are undoubtedly opening up worlds-both real and virtual alike.

Learn more about how Augment is changing the augmented reality industry.

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Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality - Augment News

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One of the biggest confusions in the world of augmented reality is the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality. Both are earning a lot of media attention and are promising tremendous growth. So what is the difference between virtual reality vs. augmented reality? What is Virtual Reality?

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Virtual reality has beginnings that preceded the time that the concept was coined and formalised. In this detailed history of virtual reality we look at how technology has evolved and how key pioneers have paved the path for virtual reality as we know it today.

Defining Virtual Reality

Before we can consider the virtual reality development timeline, we have to briefly consider that is that counts as "VR" or should be seen as a precursor to it. After all, the point of virtual reality is to trick someone's brain into believing something is real, even when it isn't.

For example, there's the famous example of an early cinematic screening. It showed a train heading straight at the camera. The people in attendance, having never seen film before, had a reaction to the footage as if it were really a train, than just a picture of one. While that story may be considered more of an urban legend in modern times, it underscores the problem of defining virtual reality neatly. It is entirely possible for film and television imagery to influence our sense of reality, at least to a point. Yet, we don't think of them and virtual reality as being one and the same.

There are plenty of definitions of VR today, which all more or less overlap in key areas. When we use the word "VR" now, it specifically refers to computer generated imagery and hardware specifically designed to bring those sights and sounds to us in a way that is totally immersive.

Many definitions also stipulate that VR must be interactive. This would differentiate it from things like 3D -movies, 360-degree video and other similar "look but don't touch" media. The problem with this is that plenty of computer generated VR isn't interactive at all, yet everyone considers it to be VR. While 360-degree video might not be computer generated, it's functionally no different to a pre-planned non-interactive CG VR experience.

In a historical context then, we have to broaden what is seen as VR or VR-adjacent. Some of the milestones discussed in this article are therefore also ancestors to other forms of media, such as film. The technologies are also branched into many different directions. In some cases,a milestone is more about the establishment of an idea, rather than the invention f a specific technology.

Early attempts at virtual reality

Panoramic paintings

If we focus more strictly on the scope of virtual reality as a means of creating the illusion that we are present somewhere we are not, then the earliest attempt at virtual reality is surely the 360-degree murals (or panoramic paintings) from the nineteenth century. These paintings were intended to fill the viewer's entire field of vision, making them feel present at some historical event or scene.

1838 - Stereoscopic photos & viewers

In 1838 Charles Wheatstone's research demonstrated that the brain processes the different two-dimensional images from each eye into a single object of three dimensions. Viewing two side by side stereoscopic images or photos through a stereoscope gave the user a sense of depth and immersion. The later development of the popular View-Master stereoscope (patented 1939), was used for "virtual tourism". The design principles of the Stereoscope is used today for the popular Google Cardboard and low budget VR head mounted displays for mobile phones.

1838 : The stereoscope (Charles Wheatstone)

1849 : The lenticular stereoscope (David Brewster)

1939 : The View-Master (William Gruber)

Over time mankind has been slowly but surely creating ever richer ways to stimulate our senses. Things really began to take off in the 20th century, with advent of electronics and computer technology.

1929 - Link Trainer The First Flight Simulator

In 1929 Edward Link created the "Link trainer" (patented 1931) probably the first example of a commercial flight simulator, which was entirely electromechanical. It was controlled by motors that linked to the rudder and steering column to modify the pitch and roll. A small motor-driven device mimicked turbulence and disturbances. Such was the need for safer ways to train pilots that the US military bought six of these devices for $3500. In 2015 money this was just shy of $50 000. During World War II over 10,000 "blue box" Link Trainers were used by over 500,000 pilots for initial training and improving their skills.

Left: Edward Link, Right: The Link Trainer

1930s - Science fiction story predicted VR

In the 1930s a story by science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum (Pygmalion's Spectacles) contains the idea of a pair of goggles that let the wearer experience a fictional world through holographics, smell, taste and touch. In hindsight the experience Weinbaum describes for those wearing the goggles are uncannily like the modern and emerging experience of virtual reality, making him a true visionary of the field.

Image source: sffaudio.com

1950s - Morton Heilig's Sensorama

In the mid 1950s cinematographer Morton Heilig developed the Sensorama (patented 1962) which was an arcade-style theatre cabinet that would stimulate all the senses, not just sight and sound. It featured stereo speakers, a stereoscopic 3D display, fans, smell generators and a vibrating chair. The Sensorama was intended to fully immerse the individual in the film. He also created six short films for his invention all of which he shot, produced and edited himself. The Sensorama films were titled, Motorcycle, Belly Dancer, Dune Buggy, helicopter, A date with Sabina and I'm a coca cola bottle!

Image source: mortonheilig.com

The video below is an interview with Morton about the Sensorama.

1960 - The first VR Head Mounted Display

Morton Heilig's next invention was the Telesphere Mask (patented 1960) and was the first example of a head-mounted display (HMD), albeit for the non-interactive film medium without any motion tracking. The headset provided stereoscopic 3D and wide vision with stereo sound.

1961 Headsight - First motion tracking HMD

In 1961, two Philco Corporation engineers (Comeau & Bryan) developed the first precursor to the HMD as we know it today - the Headsight. It incorporated a video screen for each eye and a magnetic motion tracking system, which was linked to a closed circuit camera. The Headsight was not actually developed for virtual reality applications (the term didn't exist then), but to allow for immersive remote viewing of dangerous situations by the military. Head movements would move a remote camera, allowing the user to naturally look around the environment. Headsight was the first step in the evolution of the VR head mounted display but it lacked the integration of computer and image generation.

1965 - The Ultimate display by Ivan Sutherland

Ivan Sutherland described the "Ultimate Display" concept that could simulate reality to the point where one could not tell the difference from actual reality. His concept included:

A virtual world viewed through a HMD and appeared realistic through augmented 3D sound and tactile feedback.

Computer hardware to create the virtual word and maintain it in real time.

The ability users to interact with objects in the virtual world in a realistic way

"The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked." - Ivan Sutherland
This paper would become a core blueprint for the concepts that encompass virtual reality today.

1966 - Furness' Flight Sim

An engineer for the military named Thomas Furness is credited with kick starting the development of modern flight simulator technology. Sometimes billed as "the grandfather of VR" his work in Human Interface Technology" continues to inform VR technology to this day.

1968 - Sword of Damocles

In 1968 Ivan Sutherland and his student Bob Sproull created the first VR / AR head mounted display (Sword of Damocles) that was connected to a computer and not a camera. It was a large and scary looking contraption that was too heavy for any user to comfortably wear and was suspended from the ceiling (hence its name). The user would also need to be strapped into the device. The computer generated graphics were very primitive wireframe rooms and objects.

1969 - Artificial Reality

In 1969 Myron Kruegere a virtual reality computer artist developed a series of experiences which he termed "artificial reality" in which he developed computer-generated environments that responded to the people in it. The projects named GLOWFLOW, METAPLAY, and PSYCHIC SPACE were progressions in his research which ultimately let to the development of VIDEOPLACE technology. This technology enabled people to communicate with each other in a responsive computer generated environment despite being miles apart.

1972 - GE Builds a Digital Flight Sim

General Electric produces a "computerized" flight simulator that sports three screens arranged in a 180-degree configuration. The screens surround the simulated training cockpit to give trainee pilots a feeling of true immersion.

1975 - Krueger's VIDEOPLACE

The VIDEOPLACE is widely regarded as the first interactive VR system. Using a mix of CG, light projection,cameras and screens it could measure user position. In modern terms it's more like an AR projection and didn't feature any sort of headset.

1977 - The MIT Movie Map

MIT creates the Aspec Movie Map. This system let people wander through a virtual experience of Aspen, Colorado. It was almost like an ancient precursor of Google Street View. They used video filmed from a moving car to create the impression of moving through the city. Once again, no HMD was part of this setup.

1979 - The McDonnel-Douglas HMD

The VITAL helmet is probably the first proper example of a VR HMD outside of the lab. Using a head tracker, pilots could look at primitive computer-generated imagery.

1982 - Sayre Gloves

Finger-tracking gloves for VR called "Sayre" gloves are invented by Daniel Sandin and Thomas DeFanti. The gloves were wired to a computer system and used optical sensors to detect finger movement. This was the precursor to the "data gloves" that would be an important part of early VR.

1985 - VPL Research is Founded

VR pioneers Jaron Lanier and Thomas Zimmerman found VPL Research. This is the first ever VR company to sell HMDs and gloves. The term "data glove", comes from their DataGlove product.

1986 - Furness Invents the Super Cockpit

Tom Furness, was the director of an Airforce project known as the "super cockpit". It was a simulator designed for training that featured CG graphics and real time interactivity for pilots. Interestingly, the Super Cockpit featured integration between movement tracking and aircraft control.

1987 - Virtual reality the name was born

Even after all of this development in virtual reality, there still wasn't an all-encompassing term to describe the field. This all changed in 1987 when Jaron Lanier, founder of the visual programming lab (VPL), coined (or according to some popularised) the term "virtual reality". The research area now had a name. Through his company VPL research Jaron developed a range of virtual reality gear including the Dataglove (along with Tom Zimmerman) and the EyePhone head mounted display. They were the first company to sell Virtual Reality goggles (EyePhone 1 $9400; EyePhone HRX $49,000) and gloves ($9000). A major development in the area of virtual reality haptics.

1989 - NASA Gets Into VR

NASA, with the help of a Crystal River Engineering, creates Project VIEW. A VR sim used to train astronauts. VIEW looks recognizable as a modern example of VR and features gloves for fine simulation of touch interaction. Interestingly, the technology in these gloves leads directly to the creation of the Nintendo Power Glove.

1991 - Virtuality Group Arcade Machines

We began to see virtual reality devices to which the public had access, although household ownership of cutting edge virtual reality was still far out of reach. The Virtuality Group launched a range of arcade games and machines. Players would wear a set of VR goggles and play on gaming machines with realtime (less than 50ms latency) immersive stereoscopic 3D visuals. Some units were also networked together for a multi-player gaming experience.

1991 - Medina's VR Mars Rover

These days we are pretty used to seeing live footage from Mars rovers. Back in 1991 this was still a future dream and there were many problems left to solve. A NASA engineer named Antonio Medina develops a VR system that lets you pilot a Mars rover, even taking the time delay into account. A system dubbed "Computer Simulated Teleoperation".

1992 - The Lawnmower Man

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 was used in the film and the director Brett Leonard, admited to drawing inspiration from companies like VPL.

1993 - SEGA announce new VR glasses

Sega announced the Sega VR headset for the Sega Genesis console in 1993 at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1993. The wrap-around protoype glasses had head tracking, stereo sound and LCD screens in the visor. Sega fully intended to release the product at a price point of about $200 at the time, or about $322 in 2015 money. However, technical development difficulties meant that the device would forever remain in the prototype phase despite having developed 4 games for this product. This was a huge flop for Sega.

1994 - The Sega VR-1

On a roll with their VR devices, Sega also releases it's VR-1, an arcade motion simulator that moves in accordance to what's happening on-screen. This makes it like the AS-1, but the VR uses a head-mounted display, whereas the AS-1 made use of a regular projection screen.

1995 - Nintendo Virtual Boy

The Nintendo Virtual Boy (originally known as VR-32) was a 3D gaming console that was hyped to be the first ever portable console that could display true 3D graphics. It was first released in Japan and North America at a price of $180 but it was a commercial failure despite price drops. The reported reasons for this failure were a lack of colour in graphics (games were in red and black), there was a lack of software support and it was difficult to use the console in a comfortable position. The following year they discontinued its production and sale.

1997 - Landmark VR PTSD Treatment

Georgia Tech and Emory University collaborate to use VR for the treatment of PTSD in war veterans. This is still a crucial aspect of PTSD treatment and research today. Controlled exposure to traumatic triggers are crucial to treating the symptoms of PTSD. VR technology gave therapists unrivaled control over what the patients sees and experiences.

1999 - The Matrix

In 1999 the Wachowski siblings' film The Matrix hits theatres. The film features characters that are living in a fully simulated world, with many completely unaware that they do not live in the real world. Although some previous films had dabbled in depicting virtual reality, such as Tron in 1982 and Lawnmower Man in 1992, The Matrix has a major cultural impact and brought the topic of simulated reality into the mainstream.

2007 - Google Brings Us Street View

Google enhanced its Maps service with street-level 360-degree images, captured by special cars fitted with custom camera equipment. Immersive Media did the work using a dodecahedral camera of their own design. Today you can "stand" in just about any part of the world and look around thanks to this technology.

2010 - Street View Goes 3D and the Oculus is Prototyped

Just a few years later, Street View gets a 3D mode, but much bigger news in the history of VR is the work being done by a young man known as Palmer Lucky. He's created a kit VR headset that anyone can make, but a fateful meeting with computer legend John Carmack puts him on the path to taking his "Oculus Rift" bigger than he could have imagined.

2012 - The Oculus Kickstarter

Palmer Lucky launches a Kickstarter to fund the product and development of his prototype headset, the Rift. The campaign raises almost 2.5 million dollars and is a clear dividing line between the commercial failures of consumer VR in the past and the modern VR revolution.

2014 - Facebook Buys Oculus and Sony Announced their VR Project

Social media giant sees potential in the Oculus technology, buying the company and making Lucky incredibly wealthy. This is a bumper year, also seeing the launch of Google Cardboard, PSVR and the Samsung Gear VR. Virtual Reality is suddenly a very hot topic.

This is also the year that Sony announced that they are working on a VR add-on for the popular PS4 console. The PS4 is much less powerful than VR-capable computers of the day, so everyone is pretty curious to see how they'll pull it off.

2016-2017 - All Hell Breaks Loose

This is the year everyone unleashes VR products that are ready for primetime. The Rift and the HTC Vive lead the way, but the floodgates have truly opened. You can see the results of this boom by visiting our HMD database .

2018 - The Half-dome HMD is Announced

Oculus shows off a new HMD prototype known as the "half dome". This advanced headset uses varifocal lenses and an extremely wide field of view, at 140 degrees.

2018 - Standalone VR Rises, Mobile VR Dies

We now have both the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest. Two examples of standalone VR, that need no computer or phone to work. Mobile VR is declining rapidly and standalone systems such as the Go are very affordable.

2019 - VR is Shifting Rapidly

Mixed Reality systems and sophisticated technologies are now part of standalone VR headsets. The Oculus Quest receives a promise of tethering capability and smartphone-based VR projects begin shutting down.

The cost of VR headsets has dropped dramatically and computer hardware capable of running these headsets is virtually mainstream. Many advanced headsets are on the horizon. Varifocal technology, extremely wide fields of view, hand scanning and eye tracking are but a few of the key developments.

Major companies such as Apple are rumoured to be working on mixed reality projects and at this point it time it seems as if VR and mixed reality are likely to be inseparable in future.

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History Of Virtual Reality - Virtual Reality Society

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Virtual reality has beginnings that preceded the time that the concept was coined and formalised. In this detailed history of virtual reality we look at how technology has evolved and how key pioneers have paved the path for virtual reality as we know it today.