A Brief History of VR Reading Burdea Chapter

A Brief History of VR Reading: Burdea, Chapter 1 1

Organization • Three-Dimensional Display • Virtual Reality Systems • Important Events 2

3 D Display • 1838 -1948 - Early Systems • 1967 - Traub’s Varifocal Mirror • 1979 - LEEP Optics • 1970 s Computer-based stereo displays • 1985 Commercial LC shutter displays 3

Early 3 D Display 1838 - Wheatstone Stereoscope 1849 - Brewster Stereoscope 1903 - Parallax Barrier 1915 – First 3 D movie 1948 - Holography 4

Volumetric Displays • 1967 - Traub’s Varifocal Mirror • 1981 – Larry Sher at BB&N Space. Graph • 1986 - Patent Number 4, 607, 255 UNC Chapel Hill • VFM Video 5

Commercial Shutter Glasses for CRT-based Stereoscopic Display • Timemultiplexed stereoscopic display • 1970 s – PLZT Ceramic Shutters • 1985 Commercial LC shutter displays 6

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 7

LEEP Optics 8

Virtual Reality Systems • • • • • 1929 – Link Flight Simulator 1946 – First computer (ENIAC) 1956 – Sensorama 1960 – Heileg’s HMD 1965 -68 – 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 1986 -89 – Super Cockpit Program 1990 s – Boom Displays 1992 – CAVE (at Siggraph) 1995 – Workbench 1998 – Walking Experiment 9

Link Flight Simulator • 1929 - Edward Link develops a mechanical flight simulator • Train in a synthetic environment • Used mechanical linkages • Instrument (blind) flying • http: //www. wpafb. a f. mil/museum/early_ years/ey 19 a. htm 10

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’ 11

Heilig’s HMD (1960) Simulation Mask from Heilig’s 1960 patent • 3 D photographic slides • WFOV optics with focus control • Stereo sound • Smell 12

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. ” 13

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. ” 14

First HMD-Based VR • 1965 - The Ultimate Display paper by Sutherland • 1968 - Ian Sutherland’s HMD 15

Molecular Docking Simulator • Incorporated force feedback • Visualize an abstract simulation 16

Data Gloves • Light, electrical or metal detectors compute “bend” • Electrical sensors detect pinches. • Force feedback mechanical linkages 17

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 18

1985 - Nasa Ames HMD • Mc. Greevy and Humphries • Wearable immersive HMDs • LCD “Watchman” displays • LEEP Optics • Led to VIVID, led by Scott Fisher 19

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 20

Fake. Space Boom Display - early 1990 s 21

CAVE - 1992 22

Virtual Workbench-1995 (Responsive Workbench, Immersidesk, etc. ) 23

Current Best VE • UNC Pit Experiment • Fear of Heights a Strong Response • Thousands of visitors • Compelling Experience • Haptics • Low Latency • High Visual Quality 24

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

VR Events • • 1985 - VPL Founded 1987 - VR in Scientific American 1990 – SIGGRAPH Panel Session 1991 - 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 – Disney. Quest opens 1999 – VRAIS replaced by IEEE VR Conference 26

VPL Founded - 1985 • First VR Company • VPL Research by Jaron Lanier and Thomas Zimmerman • Data Glove • Term: Virtual Reality 27

VR Comes to the Public’s Attention 1987 Article by Jim Foley that features the VPL Data Glove 28

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 29

1995 - 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” http: //www. cs. uncc. edu/~lfhodges/UNCCVR/Fall 03/VRAIS 95. gif 30

1995 - Effectiveness of computer-generated (VR) graded exposure in the treatment of acrophobia in American Journal of Psychiatry 31

First IEEE VR in 1999 • Announced at VRAIS 98 in Atlanta • First IEEE VR held in Houston in 1999 http: //www. cs. uncc. edu/~lfhodges/UNCCVR/Fall 03/VR 99. pdf • 2003 – Los Angelos, CA • 2004 - Chicago 32

Major Reinvigoration: Hardware Evolution • High expense • PC performance surpasses Graphics supercomputers • SGI Reality. Engine (300 k tris – 1993) • XBOX (150 mil tri/sec - 2001) • XBOX 360 (500 mil tri/sec - 2005) • Large Volume Displays • VR Estimated $3. 4 billion industry in 2005 33