Virtual reality, often known as VR or the metaverse, has a longer history than you may imagine.
Over the last ten years, virtual reality technology has advanced substantially, with advancements in both hardware and software.
VR has a long history dating back to the 1950s, with peaks and troughs in its growth. The sword of Damocles, the first VR head-mounted display (HMD) system, was designed in 1968.
It was designed by Ivan Sutherland and his pupil Bob Sproull, a physicist.
Ten years later, the US military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration were using virtual reality for training and simulation (NASA).
In the early 1990s, mass production of VR systems began.
The history of virtual reality
Sensorama, one of the first virtual reality systems, is created in 1956.
The Sword of Damocles, the first VR HMD, is released in 1968.
1977 – The Aspen Movie Map, created at MIT, allowed visitors to take a virtual tour of Aspen, Colorado.
Jaron Lanier created VPL Research in 1984, which was one of the first companies to develop and commercialise virtual reality technologies.
Virtuality, the first VR arcade machine, was released in 1991.
Sega released the VR-1 motion simulator in their SegaWorld arcades in 1994.
The importance of Luckey in VR
Palmer Freeman Luckey is an American entrepreneur best known for founding Oculus VR and designing the Oculus Rift,
luckey ‘s kickstarter campaign pushed the development of VR into the production phase
Luckey was dissatisfied by the existing VR headsets, Which was not suitable for consumebr use. . As a result, in 2009, he began experimenting with his own designs.
In 2010, at the age of 17, he finished his first prototype, the PR1, in his parents’ garage, which had a 90-degree field of view, low latency, and built-in haptic feedback.
Luckey created a succession of prototypes that included 3D stereoscopy, wireless, and a 270-degree field-of-view, all while reducing the size and weight of his devices.
In April 2012, he founded Oculus VR to help with the formal launch of the Kickstarter campaign.
id Software’s John Carmack, known for his work on the Doom and Quake videogame franchise, requested a prototype headset from Luckey, who generously loaned it to Carmack for free.
At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, Carmack used it to show off id Software’s Doom 3: BFG Edition on the gadget.
Luckey withdrew out of university to focus full-time on the Rift as a result of the thousands of users who were immediately drawn to it.
Luckey also gave Valve a demonstration of the device.
The Kickstarter effort was a huge success, raising $2.4 million, or 974 percent of the initial goal. Brendan Iribe was hired as CEO of Oculus by Luckey in August 2012 after financing more than a million dollars. Oculus VR expanded as a result of their successful campaign, and Luckey continued to work on all elements of the company.
The Oculus Rift headset’s first prototype was created in 2010.
Facebook paid $2 billion for Oculus in 2014.
2014 – Sony revealed Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headgear for its PlayStation 4 platform.
Apple receives a patent for a head-mounted display apparatus in 2015.
Google released Cardboard in 2015, which uses a head mount to turn a smartphone into a virtual reality gadget.
Google Cardboard is a virtual reality (VR) platform created by the search engine giant. The platform was created as a low-cost system to foster interest and development in virtual reality applications. Its name comes from the fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is plugged.
Samsung released the Gear VR headset in 2015.
Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headgear created in partnership with Oculus VR and manufactured by Samsung Electronics.
2015 – At Mobile World Congress, HTC and Valve announced the HTC Vive virtual reality headset.
PICO VR, a Chinese company, enters the VR business in 2015.
I couldn’t locate any information on it on wikipedia or other places during my study. However, it appears to be a Chinese model inspired by Quest 2. Even the controllers have the same appearance.
The first generation of the Oculus Rift was released in 2016.
Sony released PlayStation VR in 2016. (PSVR).
Microsoft released the Xbox One X, a VR-ready gaming device and headset, in 2017.
Facebook unveiled camera-equipped glasses optimised for’social VR’ in 2018.
The untethered Oculus Go headgear was released by Facebook in 2018.
Lenovo’s Mirage Solo, the first Google Daydream headset, was released in 2018.
2020 – During Facebook Connect 7, the Meta Quest 2 was officially presented on September 16, 2020.
As an incremental improvement to the Quest, The Quest 2 garnered largely excellent reviews.
2022 – new VR peripherals and add-ons become available to the general public. One made it all the way to the Shark Tank.
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