by Gene Turnbow
I had heard about virtual reality as early as 1989. The headsets were horribly low resolution and used little glass CRT’s in a headset that was so heavy it required a counterweight in the back to keep the thing from snapping your neck like a twig. My first experience with them was a virtual reality platform at a night club in Detroit, Michigan in 1990. It was a player versus player two person shooter. The graphics were terrible, the movement was floaty and strange, and you didn’t run so much as glide. Yet, your gun aimed where you pointed, you saw your virtual arm with its weapon in your hand, and you could duck down behind barriers to avoid getting shot by your opponent.
The idea has been around a long time – the first head mounted display, though, was built in 1968 by Ivan Sutherland with the help of his student Bob Sproull. It was primitive as you can imagine, and was so heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling. You didn’t wear it so much as stick your head into it from underneath. The graphics were simple wireframe models.
Time and Moore’s Law have chipped away at the problem though. And so have the people at Oculus VR. With the help of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, they’ve created an HMD that is actually light enough to be worn and used for gaming. And it’s not vaporwear. Developer’s copies of the device are now shipping. Continue reading »
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