1. Reading: The Ultimate Display
A Brief History of VR
Reading:
The Ultimate Display

2. Organization Three-Dimensional Display Virtual Reality Systems
Important Events
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

3. 3D Display 1838-1948 - Early Systems 1967 - Traub’s Varifocal Mirror
LEEP Optics
1970s - Computer-based stereo displays
Commercial LC shutter displays
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

4. Early 3D Display 1838 - Wheatstone Stereoscope
Brewster Stereoscope
Parallax Barrier
1915 – First 3D movie
Holography
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

5. Volumetric Displays 1967 - Traub’s Varifocal Mirror
1981 – Larry Sher at BB&N SpaceGraph
Patent Number 4,607,255 UNC Chapel Hill
VFM Video
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

6. Commercial Shutter Glasses for CRT-based Stereoscopic Display
Time-multiplexed stereoscopic display
1970s – PLZT Ceramic Shutters
Commercial LC shutter displays
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

7. LEEP Optics Eric Howlett, Pop-Optix Labs 1979
Large Expanse, Extra Perspective (LEEP)
Originally for stereoscopic still photo viewing
Lenses correct for intentional camera distortion
Later used in HMDs
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

8. LEEP Optics
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

9. Virtual Reality Systems
1929 – Link Flight Simulator
1946 – First computer (ENIAC)
1956 – Sensorama
1960 – Heileg’s HMD
– The Ultimate Display
1972 – Pong
1973 – Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.
1976 – Videoplace
1977 – Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack PCs
1979 – First Data Glove [Sayre] (powerglove -89)
1981 – SGI founded
1985 – NASA AMES
– Super Cockpit Program
1990s – Boom Displays
1992 – CAVE (at Siggraph)
1995 – Workbench
1998 – Walking Experiment
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

10. Link Flight Simulator
Edward Link develops a mechanical flight simulator
Train in a synthetic environment
Used mechanical linkages
Instrument (blind) flying
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

11. Sensorama Morton Heilig, 1956 Motorcycle simulator - all senses
• visual (city scenes)
• sound (engine, city sounds)
• vibration (engine)
• smell (exhaust, food)
Extend the notion of a ‘movie’
This virtual workstation utilized 3-D video, obtained with three 35 mm cameras mounted on the cameraman. The setup included stereo sound, integrated with the full 3-D camera views. The viewer could ride a motorcycle while sensing the wind, simulated by a fan, and even potholes in the road. The machine was crude, but it opened the door for a multitude of ideas - a whole new world not yet discovered.
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

12. Heilig’s HMD (1960) Simulation Mask from Heilig’s 1960 patent
3D photographic slides
WFOV optics with focus control
Stereo sound
Smell
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

13. Ivan Sutherland The Ultimate Display (FIPS 1965)
Data Visualization: “A display connected to a digital computer…is a looking glass into a mathematical wonderland.”
Body Tracking: “The computer can easily sense the positions of almost any of our body muscles.”
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

14. Ultimate Display (cont.)
Virtual Environments that mimic real environments: “A chair display 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.”
VEs that go beyond reality: “There is no reason why the objects displayed by a computer have to follow ordinary rules of physical reality with which we are familiar.”
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

15. First HMD-Based VR 1965 - The Ultimate Display paper by Sutherland
Ian Sutherland’s HMD
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

16. Molecular Docking Simulator
Incorporated force feedback
Visualize an abstract simulation
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

17. Data Gloves Light, electrical or metal detectors compute “bend”
Electrical sensors detect pinches.
Force feedback mechanical linkages
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

18. 1983 - Artificial Reality Responsive Environment
Is an environment where human behavior is perceived by a computer which interprets what it observes and responds through intelligent visual and auditory displays
Contained many of the ideas that define: VR
Context Aware Computing
Video Place
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

19. 1985 - Nasa Ames HMD McGreevy and and Humphries
Wearable immersive HMDs
LCD “Watchman” displays
LEEP Optics
Led to VIVID, led by Scott Fisher
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

20. Super Cockpit - Tom Furness
Wright Patterson Air Force Base
Visual, auditory, tactile
Head, eye, speech, and hand input
Designed to deal with problem of pilot information overload
Flight controls and tasks too complicated
Research only
Big system, not safe for ejecting
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

21. FakeSpace Boom Display - early 1990s
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

22. CAVE
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

23. Virtual Workbench-1995 (Responsive Workbench, Immersidesk, etc.)
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

24. Current Best VE UNC Pit Experiment Fear of Heights a Strong Response
Thousands of visitors
Compelling Experience
Haptics
Low Latency
High Visual Quality
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

25. Gloves, Joysticks, Force Feedback
Major VR Companies
Computing
Power
Display
Interaction
Locomotion
80s
Evans &
Sutherland
HMD
Gloves,
Joysticks,
Custom Built
Electromagnetic
(4’ radius)
90s
Silicon
Graphics Inc.
HMD, CAVE
Gloves, Joysticks, Force Feedback
Optical
(room sized)
Current PC
Real Objects
Force Feedback
Future
Tablet,
PDA, PC
Projectors
Natural interaction
Anywhere,
Outdoors
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

26. VR Events 1985 - VPL Founded 1987 - VR in Scientific American
1990 – SIGGRAPH Panel Session
ICAT (International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence) in Japan
1995 – IEEE Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium (VRAIS 95).
1995 – Beginning of Clinical VR
1998 – DisneyQuest opens
1999 – VRAIS replaced by IEEE VR Conference
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

27. VPL Founded - 1985 First VR Company
VPL Research by Jaron Lanier and Thomas Zimmerman
Data Glove
Term: Virtual Reality
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

28. VR Comes to the Public’s Attention
1987 Article by Jim Foley that features the VPL Data Glove
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

29. Siggraph 1990
Special Session: Hip, Hype and Hope – The Three Faces of Virtual Worlds
Chair: Bob Jacobson, University of Washington
Panelists: John Barlow, Author and Songwritter
Nolan Bushnell, Aaps, Inc.
Esther Dyson, Editor, Release 1.0, Analyst
Tom Furness, Human Interface Technology Lab
Timothy Leary, University of Pittsburgh
Warren Robinette, University of North Carolina
Randall Walser, Autodesk
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

30. Research Frontiers in VR workshop at Visualization 93
First IEEE Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium (now IEEE VR)
VRAIS 93 in Seattle
Research Frontiers in VR workshop at Visualization 93
“Timothy Leary Wasn’t Invited”
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

31. Effectiveness of computer-generated (VR) graded exposure in the treatment of acrophobia in American Journal of Psychiatry
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

32. First IEEE VR in 1999 Announced at VRAIS 98 in Atlanta
First IEEE VR held in Houston in 1999
2003 – Los Angelos, CA
Chicago
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu

33. Major Reinvigoration: Hardware Evolution
High expense
PC performance surpasses Graphics supercomputers
SGI RealityEngine (300k tris – 1993)
XBOX (150 mil tri/sec )
XBOX360 (500 mil tri/sec )
Large Volume Displays
VR Estimated $3.4 billion industry in 2005
c07 Ben Lok, c08 Sab Babu