Essential Install | Virtual Reality
Virtually A Reality
The popularity of virtual reality, or VR for short, has exploded in
recent years, but the technology comes from a rather humble
background, and is a lot older than most people may think. In fact,
VR has been challenging the traditional cinematic experience since
the 1960s; although only now has the technology developed to
such a standard that it can be considered a threat.
The Oculus Rift is
largely responsible
for VR’s renaissance
Back in the 1960s, VR was little more than an arcade
booth that consumers would stick their heads into. These
booths, nicknamed Sensorama, were designed to only
play short films, but they can be thought of as the original
beginnings of virtual reality.
Created by Morton Heilig, a cinematographer,
the Sensorama was lightyears ahead of its era. The
technology originally gave viewers the sensation of riding
a motorcycle through the streets of Brooklyn, although
four more films were developed throughout its lifetime.
The technology was revolutionary as it not only used
the machine to give viewers a first-person perspective,
but it also used vibrations, smells and sounds to
completely immerse whoever was watching the clips.
Unfortunately, as with many revolutionary
technologies, it simply cost too much to maintain and was
eventually shelved. The problem wasn’t the technology
itself, however. It was that there was no understanding on
how to sell it. This is a problem that many still have today.
Virtual Reality in the 21 st Century
VR has developed at an exponential pace in the last seven
years and it’s largely thanks to one man – Palmer Luckey.
While the controversial, Trump-supporting founder of
Oculus VR has since been ousted from the company he
built, it was his drive to fix everything that was wrong with
VR that led to the reinvention of the technology.
Starting out in his parents’ garage in 2010 at just
17, Palmer built one of the first commercially-viable VR
headsets that featured a 90° field of view. This may not
sound hugely impressive, but this breakthrough is what led
to consumers thinking about VR the way they do today.
The technology that Palmer developed would
eventually lead to the Oculus Rift, which is by far the most
recognisable VR headset currently on the market. By the
September 2017 | 49