Gadgetory

if there's one thing humans can't stand it's the actual physical world why else would we have spent years trying to make virtual reality a success for as long as we've been able to render computer-generated world we fantasized about transplanting our minds into the artificial realm but for all our decades of dreaming the history of VR in the real world is essentially a story of failure the early 60s audiences with immersive theater such as Mort inhaling smell producing Center AMA or telesphere masks but V I've got its first proper airing when respects its computer scientist Ivan Sutherland described what he called the ultimate display a head-mounted room filling one two gadgets that Sutherland hopes would prove a looking glass into a mathematical Wonderland Sutherlands tech was truly mind-bending but as we know the public's appetite over the next two decades was for computers that were a little more two-dimensional nevertheless VR was growing behind the scenes industrial since crude wireframe environments it can only be the mid 80s a time when systems like NASA's virtual visual environment display were proving the potential of they are outside the consumer sphere shown off in 1986 two tiny LCD screens and a helmet-mounted sensor promised a final frontier of remotely controlled space Hardware back on earth the 80s all virtual reality become a familiar term one popularized by Jaron Lane EA of vpl which developed the data Club an ancestor of the infamous power glove from the Nintendo Entertainment System I love the power glove it's so big public interest flared and suddenly the VR Revolution was just around the corner the focal point for that enthusiasm was to be the games industry and in the mid-90s VR started to creep into our homes there were outliers like Forte's VFX one but Sega Nintendo at the time the biggest names in gaming also had a go the Sega VR made it to arcades but the console version was canceled a decision Nintendo should have learned from before building the Virtual Boy released in the u.s. in August 1995 the Virtual Boy which offered monochromatic 3d gaming through a boxy headset had nothing going for it it was expensive the games look terrible Nintendo stripped out head-tracking from the prototype and most worryingly gamers complained of headaches and nausea when using it a critical and commercial failure the Virtual Boy was kin to the next year marketing aside the Virtual Boy was VR only in the weakest sense but as a poster child for the concept its failure soar Virtual Reality take a big hit this is the oculus rift today with vastly improved Hardware were once more ready to give VR a tried in a new virtual reality flair ignited by oculus rift which in 2012 stormed Kickstarter earning over a million dollars in crowdfunding in only a few days since then Microsoft Samsung Sony HTC valve and many more have thrown their hats into the VR ring will be our finally stick or not well there are signs that this time things could be different today's we are is being pioneered by tech makers like Samsung and HTC who desperately need a next big thing as heat from the smartphone boom calls so there's plenty of enthusiasm and resources in the water make VR work then there's a social web which opens up a new frontier for VR beyond gaming we've already seen VR social networks and with Facebook now in charge of oculus the virtual worlds to come could be a lot chattier than we anticipated what VR has never ever done though is win over the public so if you really want to know whether this stuff could ever take off all we have to do is ask yourself do I want this in my life so do you you