vol.1 Virtual Magazine issue2 | Page 15

virtual reality. The short story describes a goggle-based virtual reality system with holographic recording of fictional experiences including smell and touch.

2000 – present day

In 2001 SAS3 or SAS Cube has been the first PC based cubic room, developed by Z-A Production (Maurice Benayoun, David Nahon), Barco, Clarté, installed in Laval France in April 2001. The SAS library gave birth to Virtools VRPack.

By 2007, Google introduced Street View, a service that shows panoramic views of an increasing number of worldwide positions such as roads, indoor buildings and rural areas. It also features a stereoscopic 3D mode, introduced in 2010.

In 2013 Nintendo files a patent for the concept of using VR technology to produce a more realistic 3D effect on a 2D television. A camera on the TV tracks the viewer's location relative to the TV, and if the viewer moves, everything on the screen reorients itself appropriately. "For example, if you were looking at a forest, you could shift your head to the right to discover someone standing behind a tree."

On March 25, 2014, Facebook purchased a company that makes virtual reality headsets, Oculus VR, for $2 billion. Sony announces Project Morpheus (its code name for PlayStation VR), a virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4. Google announces Cardboard, a do-it-yourself stereoscopic viewer for smartphones.

Since 2013, there have been several virtual reality devices that seek to enter the market to complement Oculus Rift to enhance the game experience. One, Virtuix Omni, is based on the ability to move in a three dimensional environment through an omnidirectional treadmill. And Gloveone, the first glove developed for Pressive sensation to stimulate touch and make it appear that the user has something in his hand.

In February/March 2015, HTC partnered with Valve Corporation announced their virtual reality headset HTC Vive and controllers, along with their tracking technology called Lighthouse,[20][21][22] which is indicated on the Steam platform to have a release date of November 2015.[23]

In July 2015, OnePlus became the first company to launch a product using virtual reality.[24] They used VR as the platform to launch their second flagship device the OnePlus 2, first viewable using an app on the Google Play Store,[25] then on YouTube.[26] The launch was viewable using OnePlus Cardboard, based on the Google’s own Cardboard platform. The whole VR launch had a runtime of 33 minutes, and was viewable in all countries.