I’m Songbao writing code.

Recently, I have brought you the sharing of “VR Field”. The main outline is as follows:

VR development History – INTRODUCTION to VR technology – VR industry data – VR future development path – more comprehensive understanding of VR

Today we bring the development history of VR, welcome to pay attention to, message exchange learning.

The history of VR

1930s Science Fantasy

In the 1930s, writer Stanley mentioned in his novel Pygmalion’s Glasses such virtual reality glasses. When people wear them, they can see, hear and smell the things felt by the characters inside, just like living in them.

1950s-1960s

In the mid-1950s, American photographer Morton Heilig invented the first VR device: Sensorama (patented in 1962). It’s huge (pictured below), has a fixed screen, 3D stereo, 3D display, vibrating seats, fans (to simulate wind blowing), and a smell generator.

In 1960, Morton Heilig filed a patent for an even more ingenious design of VR glasses. From the outside, the design of this VR device is very similar to modern VR glasses. However, it only has a stereoscopic display and no gesture tracking.

In 1968, Ivan Sutherland, an American computer scientist, invented a prototype of VR/AR glasses that came closest to the concept of a modern VR device. It was nicknamed “The Sword of Damocles” because of its heavy weight and the need to be hung on the head by a mechanical arm.

The VR glasses, through ultrasound + mechanical shaft, realize the initial posture detection function.

1990s

The first VR boom in the 1990s, with the market’s popularity, VR glasses ushered in the first boom.

Above, a quote from Scott Stein’s introduction to VR. The magazine on the left is the June 1993 issue of The New Life of Technology, and the magazine on the right is the August 17, 2015 issue of Time.

The commercialization of this high-tech toy has aroused great interest from the media and industry people. Major console companies regard it as an opportunity to change the game industry and rush to launch their own VR glasses:

Although the above products look the same as VR we see today, the display technology, 3D rendering technology and motion detection technology in the 1990s were not mature. The viewing experience falls far short of “usable.”

For example, the famous Virtual Boy (nintendo) only supports red and black display, has a single eye resolution of 384×224, and is very grainy.

After these VR products were launched, they were criticized by players. Manufacturers have also recognized the huge barrier between ideal and reality and are holding back, waiting for technology to develop further.

2012 VR boom restart

The 2012 launch of the Oculus Rift, a $2.5 million Crowdfunded VR eyewear device on Kickstarter, brought people’s minds back to VR.

Founder Palmer is a VR collector himself. After exploring various VR experiences over the last century, he decided to do it himself, which led to the Oculus Rift.

Facebook announced the acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion in July 2014. A new round of VR development has begun.

Technology maturity curve

At this point, you might think that the development of VR technology is very ups and downs. But most new technologies go through an up-and-down phase from concept to adoption. And there’s an industry curve that describes this process called The Hype Cycle.

The horizontal axis is technology maturity over time, and the vertical axis is technology exposure/industry attention.

It can be seen from the curve that during the development of a new technology, there will be such a law:

Technology Trigger: New technologies are put forward and gradually enter the public’s vision. Prototype products are constantly developed to stimulate the public’s curiosity.

Peak of expectation: Mass enterprises or research institutions begin to rush into new areas of concern, intent on seizing new areas of concern and taking the lead. In this period, people tend to ignore the shortcomings of new technologies and blindly invest human and material resources. At the same time, in media publicity, they are also blindly optimistic to cater to the public’s interest and over-advertise the bright prospect of new technologies.

Bubble Burst (Disillusionment) : When a batch of products were developed and rushed into the market, people finally found that the so-called “bright future” had not come, all kinds of negative comments came one after another, and enterprises finally recognized the reality and began to tighten investment, and the whole market gradually cooled down.

Slope of Enlightenment: Based on the failure of the first wave of products, people slowly started to improve the new technology and improve the results gradually.

Plateau of Productivity: The critical mass production phase occurs when the performance/effectiveness of a new technology finally meets demand.

In the development history of VR, it just corresponds to the previous several periods. The boom of the 1990s was the peak of high expectations, and after a trough, we have entered a bright period of steady climb.

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Songpo writes more than code, saucXS nickname, watermark- DOM open source 900+Star author, former ACM school team, byte engineer now, likes to challenge himself, as the interviewer and school recruitment programming questions. A blogger who is “worthy of helping you.”

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