Virtual Reality (VR)

For people who don’t know the Virtual Reality, because they living like me beyond the Moon. I going to explain it, really,
really
really
really
really
really exiting piece of Technic, so short I can.

The virtual reality (VR) is an interactive computer generated experience that taking place within a simulated environment for example in games or in videos that are made for VR. A person who using the equipment of the virtual reality (wearing a headset or interact with a multi-projected environment) is able, to move in the simulated world, to look around and seeing the virtual environment, you also have the possibility to interact the , for example with virtual people and animals or items. To obtain a better VR experience the virtual world involve an typical natural sound for example birds, so the person dive deeper in the VR experience. The VR systems utilize also vibrations or other sensations to transfer the User a greater VR experience is called as haptic systems. You can find this system in gaming controller or other devices.

Now I show you the history of the virtual reality.

1962 – Morton Heilig invent the first VR machine, he gave the machine the name Sensorama, this Sensorama comes with five short films to be displayed the multiple senses like sight,sound,smell and touch are active involved in the film.

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1970–1990

1970- 1990 The VR technology only purposed for medical, automobile design industry, flight simulation and military training.

1977 to 1984 – David Em became the first artist to produce navigable virtual worlds at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he was Artist in Residence from 1977 to 1984.

1978 – The Aspen Movie Map was created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)  . The program was a crude virtual simulation of Aspen, Colorado in which users could wander the streets in one of the three modes: summer, winter, and polygons.

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.

in 1980 Atari build a arcade video game with the name Battlezone the machine used 3D vector graphics to let immerse the player being in a VR environment. This arcade video game lead Atari to found a research lab for the virtual reality in 1982, but badly Atari closed this lab after two year due the Atari shock

1985 jaron Lanier founded the company VPL Research and bring the term “virtual reality” into the publish community, he is one of the modern pioneers of this field. His Company developed a DataSuit with sensors on the suit to measuring the movement of arms, legs, and trunk. It was presented at the Nissho Iwai showroom in Tokyo. Other VR equipment developed by VPL Research was the Data Glove, the EyePhone, and the Audio Sphere.

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1990–2000

In the 90s we could witness that the VR not anymore limited on the industry sector like automobile design, no we saw that also the private customer comes in touch with VR experience. Many Industry like Nintendo tries to bring the VR fun to the customers homes, but the Technic was not ready for this and badly failed.

1991 – A group of three people from the Electronic Visualization Laboratory build the first cubic immersive room, it creates a multi projected environment similar to a Holodeck ( a virtual room that is only a projection. ).

Between 1989-1992, Nicole Stenger created Angels, the first real-time interactive immersive movie. The interaction was facilitated with a dataglove and high-resolution goggles.

1992 – Louis Rosenberg created at the U.S. Air Force’s Armstrong Labs  the Virtual Fixtures system. This system using a full upper-body exoskeleton, enabling a physically realistic virtual 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.

1991 – Sega announced the Sega VR headset for the Mega Drive console. The Sega VR utilized the LCD screens in the visor, the stereo headphones, and inertial sensors to track and react to the movements of the player.

1994 – Sega released the Sega VR-1 motion simulator arcade attraction, in Sega World 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.

  1991 -Virtuality Group that was found in video arcades published, Virtuality and The VR system become as first one mass-produced and networked for multiplayer VR entertainment system. It was released in many countries, including a dedicated VR arcade opened at Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. the headset and exoskeleton gloves gave the first “immersive” VR experiences.

1994 – Apple released QuickTime VR, which, despite using the term “VR”, was unable to represent virtual reality,

 1995 – Nintendo released the Virtual Boy in an unfinished state. The Virtual Boy was a 32-bit table-top video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was represented as the first console capable of displaying stereoscopic 3D graphics. The player utilize the headset in a manner similar to a head-mounted display, placing their head against the eyepiece to see a red monochrome display. In the early 1996, Nintendo ceased distribution and game development. For the Virtual Boy was only 22 games released and it was an commercial failure. The reason for the miserable sale of the Virtual Boy is the high price, monochrome display, unimpressive 3D effects, no really portability, health concerns and low quality games.

 1995 – A group in Seattle created an 270 degree immersive projection room called the Virtual Theater produced by entrepreneurs Chet Dagit and Bob Jacobson. The Virtual Theater or Cave is created by projectors positioned outside the CAVE and controlled by physical movements from a user inside the CAVE. A motion capture system records the real time position of the user. Stereoscopic LCD shutter glasses convey a 3D image. The computers rapidly generate a pair of images, one for each of the user’s eyes, based on the motion capture data. The glasses are synchronized with the projectors so that each eye sees the correct image.

1995 – The VFX1 was developed by Forte technologies, incorporated with an manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of US$695 and an average retail price of $599.
The name was superseded by Interactive Imaging Systems’ VFX3D in 2000.
It comprised a helmet, a handheld controller, and an ISA interface board, and offered head-tracking, stereoscopic 3D, and stereo audio.

1996 -Sony released Its first commercial unit named Glasstron was a family of portable head-mounted displays with the model name PLM-50. Glasstron included two LCD screens and one earphones for video and audio respectively. with MechWarrior 2 it was user allowed to see a visual perspective from inside of the Cockpit and seeing the battlefield through their own cockpit.

1999 – The entrepreneur Philip Rosedale worked in the Linden Lab with an focus on the development of VR hardware, tries to realize an commercial version of the “The Rig”
which was realized in prototype form as a clunky steel contraption with several computer monitors these prototype the users could wear on their shoulders.

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2000–present

After disappointing tries to bring the VR experience closer to the costumers. From 2000 until now the VR possibility have raise and grew bigger than ever before.

2001 – The Z-A Production (Maurice Benayoun, David Nahon) developed work partnership Barco. The Clarté the SAS Cube (SAS3). This cube became the first PC based cubic room and is a virtual reality fully immersive room, similar to the CAVE®, brings to life . A cube with 4 screens, 3x3m. The user is inside the cube structure around him stereoscopic retro projections, thus them the user feels that he is in a 3D environment, although the user know that the 3D environment is not real.

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The SAS Cube registered the movements of the user and change the perspectives of the environment so the user feels like in a real 3D world. The SAS Cube is multi-platform and can run with 2, 4 or 8 PCs or with the SGI Onyx. This SAS Cube is installed in Laval, France. The SAS library gave birth to Virtools VRPack.

2007 – Google had revealed a new invent, that changed our perspective. You know which invention it was? Yeah right! It was the Google street view, now you had the possibility see panoramic views of an increasing number of worldwide positions of roads, indoor buildings and ´rural areas. In 2010 Google features also a stereoscopic 3D mode.

2010 –  Palmer Luckey designed the first prototype of the Oculus Rift. This prototype, built on a shell of another virtual reality headset, was only capable of rotational tracking. The demonstration of the Prototype followed at the E3 2012 and in the August 2012 Luckey announced a Kickstarter campaign to further support the Oculus Rift headset. The company around Luckey proclaimed that the “dev kit” version would be given as a reward to backers who pay $300 or more for the Kickstarter. The shipping date was planned for December 2012, but they did not ship until March 2013. There was also a limited run of 100 unassembled Rift that would ship a month earlier, if Customer buys a Rift prototype kit for over $275. However, it boasted a 90-degree field of vision that was previously unseen in the consumer market at the time. This initial design would later serve as a basis from which the later designs came. Within four hours of the Kickstarter campaign Oculus Rift secured its intended amount of US$250,000 and in less than 36 hours, the campaign raised to $1 million, the Kickstarter campaign ending with $2,437,429. On April 2012, Luckey announced the Rift, a virtual reality headset designed for video gaming and gaves two pre-production models to developers; the Oculus VR DK1 (Development Kit 1) and Oculus VR DK2 (Development Kit 2). The customer product was released on March 28, 2016 with an all-new design incorporating specialized VR displays, positional audio, and infrared tracking system.

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On March 2014 CEO Mark Zuckeberg purchase the Oculus VR for US$2.3 billion. 2015 the CEO Mark Zuckerberg acquired an Surreal Vision and then a British startup that are focused on 3D reconstruction and mixed reality said that it could be possible to produce with Oculus Rift varies products with the concept of telepresence. The company also partnered with Samsung to develop the Samsung Gear VR

2013 – Miguel Schiaffino Tienda from EYEDAK announced a new VR Glasses the vrAse, with that headset the user have the possibility to utillize augmented and virtual reality. VrAse allows the user to utillize the current and future smartphones. In many VR headsets the user only see small screen piece, but the User of the VrAse headset sees the whole screen. vrAse had full frame view, through the optic design developed especially for vrAse. Furthermore the user can adjust the headset so it’s fit comfortable in her equal face and eyes. vrAse focuses on having the highest quality of vision. The user enjoys a very comfortable vision, with no Light Ray Artifact, low chromatic aberration and minimum image distortion

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Complete facts about the headset

Short discretion:

• Compact design with only 330 grams weight.
• Soft components that hold the VR headset on your head.
• Headset with multi-material components Reinforced.
• Aerodynamic lenses up to 20 cm²

2013 – Valve Corporation discovered and freely shared the breakthrough of low-persistence displays which make lag-free and smear-free display of VR content possible. This was adopted by Oculus and was used in all their future headsets. By the sucess of the Oculus Rift. Decided the Valve Corporation, to developed her own VR headset with HTC. The headset uses an tracking technology to scale the room with her lasers, so the player have the possibility to move in a 3D space and to use motion tracked handheld controllers to interact with the environment.

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In early 2014, Valve demonstrated their SteamSight prototype, the precursor to both consumer headsets released in 2016. Before this happened Valve announced SteamVR and showed off at the 2015 Game Developers Conference the headset. HTC unveiled the Headset on 1 March 2015 at the Mobile World Congress. In August and September 2015 were the Development kits sent out and
at Consumer Electronics Show 2016, HTC and Valve unveiled a near-final hardware revision of the device, known as HTC Vive Pre. However the first Consumer version of the HTC Vive was released on 5 April 2016 and this marked the first major successful commercial release of an VR headset.

2014 – The engineer Anton Mikhailov of Sony’s research and development said that he and his team worked since 2011 on Playstation VR with the name Project Morpheus. You can move in front of the Playstation camera by using the Playstation Move controllers.

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Furthermore Mikhailov said that the Playstation 3 Move controllers already was an VR Move controller. Sony announced in 2014 at the Game Developers Conference the project Morpheus with the words of the Sony Computer Entertainment President Shuhei Yoshida “the next innovation from Playstation that (shape) the furture of games” . As the first Move controller was released, decided Sony that all Games must have not lesser than 60 frames per second, because to made the comfort of playing VR Games better. in 2015 Sony announced that the name Project Morpheus would be changed in Playstation VR. Later utillized Sony the experience in visual depth-sensing gesture recognition to work on the Playstation VR.
In 2017 Sony filed a patent that shows that they were developing a similar location tracking technology to the Vive for PlayStation VR, but this headset will be developing as wireless headset. The price of the Playstation VR lays by $399

2015 -Google proclaimed the Google Cardboard it is a do-it-yourself stereoscopic viewer for smartphone, but a year before the announcement Google introduced the concept in 2014 on the Google developers conference and all attendees had received a Cardboard viewer. The Google Cardboard consist of low cost components, Google gave freely on her own website an instruction, how the user should assemble the cardboard headset. The Cardboard software development kit (SDK) is available for Android and iOS systems. The SDK’s VR View allows the developer to embed VR content on the web as well as in their mobile apps. First there are only Pre-manufactured cardboards of third party vendors, but in February 2016 Google began himself selling their own cardboards.

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The first version of Cardboard could fit phones with screen up to 5.7 inches (140 mm) and used magnets as input buttons, which required a compass senor in the phone. Later the same year Google released an updated design, so now phones with up to 6 inches (150 mm) worked with the cardboard, and Google replaced the magnet switch by with a conductive lever that triggers a touch event on the phone’s screen for better compatibility, and that by all devices. The platform was created by David Coz and Damien Henry both are engineers at the Google Cultural institute in Paris Moreover started Kickstarter campaign for Gloveone, a pair of gloves to improving the motion tracking and haptic feedback of that Google Cardboard. The gloves was successful funded with over $150,000 donation. Through March 2017, over 10 million Cardboard viewers had shipped and over 160 million Cardboard app downloads had been made. Google announced an improved VR platform with the name Daydream at Google developer Conference in 2016.

2016 – At least 230 companies developing VR-related products. Facebook had 400 employees focused on VR development; Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Sony and Samsung all had dedicated AR and VR groups. Dynamic binaural audio was common to most headsets released that year. However, haptic interfaces were not well developed, and most hardware packages incorporated button-operated handsets for touch-based interactivity. Visually, displays were still of a low-enough resolution and frame-rate that images were still identifiable as virtual.