A brief history and glossary of Virtual Reality

6 min readNov 16, 2017

The history is VR is hard to pinpoint, it’s shown up many times across human history throughout the world. This historical context will be set for the majority in the Western World for now. It is important to note that many eastern companies have higher diversity in the headsets and VR accessories available. They also have a larger focus on communal environments such as malls to host the VR experiences. These are selected for their representation or the techniques that they brought.

1838 — The first stereoscope was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone. This device utilized binocular depth perception by showing that when two pictures simulating left-eye and right-eye views of the same object are presented, the brain will fuse the two and accept them as a view of one solid three-dimensional object. (Same principle used in Google Cardboard and most mobile VR Headsets today)

1935 — science fiction writer Stanley G.Weinbaum presented a comprehensive and specific fictional model for virtual reality in his short story Pygmalion’s Spectacles. It describes a pair of goggles which enabled “a movie that gives one sight and sound […] taste, smell, and touch. […] You are in the story, you speak to the shadows (characters) and they reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it.”

1962 — The Sensorama was built and patented by cinematographer Morton Heilig, it was a fully mechanical device that featured stereo speakers, a stereoscopic 3D display, fans, smell generators and a vibrating chair.

1961: Headsight was the first head tracking VR Headset, created by Philco Corporation. The Headsight included a single CRT video screen as well as a magnetic head tracking system. Its main purpose was to allow the immersive remote viewing of dangerous situations by the military.

The history is VR blows up around here where there are huge efforts going in parallel by game companies like Sega and Atari, NASA, research institutions like the University of Illinois etc. Now just going to mention one, as there are too many to count.

1984: RB2 (Reality Built for Two) was a commercial VR system by VPL Research that included a VR control system called the DataGlove and the DataSuit. The glove allowed individuals to interact with virtual objects on a basic level, such as turning and manipulating them. The suit was outfitted with ith sensors for measuring the movement of arms, legs, and chest.

2009 — Oculus becomes kickstarted for nearly 2.5 million dollars. Oculus Development Kit 1 was released in 2012 and had LCD display with 640x800 resolution in each eye and 3-axis rotational tracking.

2012 — HTC + Vive partnered to bring a new headset to life, the HTC Vive. A room scalable system that had effective controllers that have been the inspiration and beginnings for all the modern VR room scale systems.

2014–2017 — Google Cardboard was among the first to bring the VR experience to a mobile device. Later Gear VR and Google Daydream brought controllers to the mobile VR scene. This allowed for interactive VR experiences to be brought to mobile devices.

Glossary of VR Experiences

I decided here to go over terminology about the VR experiences themselves rather than field specific definitions like per eye resolution. These are modifiers that virtual reality designers can use to tweak and enhance their VR experiences. Think of these as the building blocks you can use to make a VR experience.

Experiential Modes (The Base)

These are ways in which VR can be experienced.

Stationary — Web + Mobile + PC: This is when someone is stationary in a chair with a primary 120–180 fov interaction.

360° — Web + Mobile + PC: This is self explanatory, however remember this one doesn’t allow one to walk around.

Roomscale — PC: This takes advantage of a standard room and allows for people to walk around physically in real life that will be translated into the VR world.

Virtual Augmented Reality — Specialized PC setups: These are careful crafted experiences like the VOID that use sensory peripherals to create an augmented reality experience upon the real world with a mapped virtual world.

Interaction Modifiers (The Features)

These are modifiers that can be added to the VR experience to change how the interactions might work.

Passive: The invisible perspective watching everything happen.

Active: The ability to interact and play an active role in the experience.

Viewer Focused: There is a focus on the viewer while interactions are going. Events happen to the viewer.

World Focused: There is a focus on the viewer while the interactions are going. Events happen around the viewer.

Solo: An experience for a single person. One at a time.

Group: The experience is for multiple people at a time. This does not mean that everyone needs to be in VR though.

Asymmetric: A interaction that takes advantage of the asymmetric characteristic of the separation between the VR and those in a separate experience.

Intervening: A interaction model that has two states, allowing for the viewer to have both a passive or active interaction depending on their choice.

Haptic: A interaction model that has objects duplicated in the real world and the virtual reality world. This allows for the experience to haptically feel real and allow for biological training such as running on a treadmill in VR.