Introduction
Virtual reality started with dreams, and now the technology is everywhere. The hardware is becoming more affordable and developers are producing software straight out of a science fiction novel.
We have created imagined worlds and brought them to life throughout history in the forms of art, literature and more recently, digital media. Computer technology has come so far, we have almost built the “Ultimate Display”.
The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed 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. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.
-Ivan Sutherland 1965
Virtual reality has advanced to the point of being used to teach medical students how to perform surgery, and soldiers how to target, all without casualties, by creating a realistic 3 Dimensional situation, that simulates real life. VR is being developed for so many uses, I want to explore how far Virtual reality technology has come, how artists are using it today, and if it could be utilised to teach design. (Explain chapters)
1.1 A Brief History of Virtual Reality
Virtual reality, or VR is not a new term. It dates back centuries to panoramic paintings in the late 1800s. Yet even before that, as long as humans have lived there has been a virtual reality, dreams. Dreaming takes memories and displaces them in a world when you are asleep; fragments create an environment tailored to your fear and desires. Not many people can control their dreams and most likely from this, and the allure of immersive literature, birthed the yearning for a controlled Virtual Reality.
Panoramic paintings became popular after 1792, when Robert Barker constructed an entire round building into a painted landscape illusion. The large, 360-degree painting- including the ceiling and floor- was the first of its kind and was a painting of Edinburgh. The surge in these surrounding works of art grew and it became a new form of entertainment, more were constructed like Barkers and some artists started including props in front of the paintings to give the illusion of depth (Woeste, 2009). These illusions created a new kind of viewing, placing the audience in a position where they felt they were present in the artist’s creations. The first issue with VR arose long before the technology, with reports that Queen Charlotte, upon observing a panoramic painting, felt seasick. (Altick 1978). This is a familiar problem with Virtual Reality, as viewers still experience “cybersickness” in technology today.
The popularity in panoramic paintings decreased when cinematography arose. In 1838, Charles Wheatstone took the Stereoscopic images(explain) and paired them with binocular vision creating a device that mimics VR headsets today, tricking each eye into thinking what the wearer is seeing is 3 dimensional (Gamber and Withers, 1996, Stereoscope) . Although the images created a mesmerising view for the audience, it did not have the interactivity, and so did not create a real sense of presence.
Morton Heilig took the next big step for VR, in creating the Telesphere Mask and Sensorama in the 1960s. Heilig wanted a fully immersive experience for the viewer, so started incorporating 3-D images with sound, wind, smells and vibrations. “Open your eyes, listen, smell, and feel-sense the world in all its magnificent colors, depth, sounds, odors, and textures this is the cinema of the future!” (Heilig, 1955). Heilig created these effects with tools such as optical units, united television tubes, earphones and air discharge nozzles. The Telesphere Mask and Sensorama were two different versions of the Virtual Reality experience he sought after. Sensorama was the more advanced of the two. He invented a 3-D camera and projector to incorporate into his invention alongside the previous stated tools. He created five films to play for the experience, one of which was a motorcycle ride through New York, this film not only incorporate the 3-D images, sound and air, but also a seat which vibrated like the motorbike in the images. This created a real sense of presence, as you could feel what you were seeing. Despite this giant leap it was still lacking interactivity. The Sensorama was a success, but it’s expensive running costs and machine parts meant it was not affordable and only a few remain in places like Universal Studios.
Whilst Heilig concentrated on a futuristic cinema experience, engineers Charles Comeau and James Bryan developed an HMD (Head Mounted Display) called Headsight at electronics company Philco Corporation in 1961. They created a helmet that combined a camera and a magnetic tracking system so the camera could turn in three dimensions (Rid, 2016). Spherical mirrors were used to project a 10 inch image, that appeared in front of the user. It was primarily used to view dangerous, remote areas, such as the top of a tall building. The viewer could experience the high height from one of the offices below when wearing the headgear, transcending the physical, as the camera could be placed on the very edge of the building. . This VR technology was another step forward, but still lacked interactivity, as you could not interact with the environment other than turning your head to reveal different angles of the image taken from the camera.
This initiated other experiments, one of which a camera was placed on a rooftop, and it faced two people playing catch (Robertson 2015). The camera was attached to an observer, who was in another building, but as he moved his head from side to side, the camera on the rooftop followed these movements so the observer could watch the game of catch. This created a huge sense of presence as the camera was being interactive and the feed meant the observer could feel like he was actually there. After seeing this, Ivan Sutherland, who wrote “The Ultimate Display” was so inspired by this leap in technology, he started experimenting with incorporating computers into HMD’s.
In 1965, Sutherland successfully created the first computer and HMD Hybrid, known as “Sword of Damocles”. At the time the computers were huge and so was the HMD, so Sutherland had to suspend the device from the ceiling, so it would not crush the user. Despite the possible crushing, this device was the first time computers were able to display real world, augmented environment. (Adams & Merklinghaus, 2014). Sutherland was able to display a transparent, 3D wire cube that floated in the room of the viewer, and would move and tilt with the users head movements. (Sutherland 1968).
1.3 Modern Virtual Reality Technology
Presence: vividness and interactivity have been focuses when trying to satisfy the criteria for Virtual Reality, though as stated many different forms have been tested, but none so far have mirrored reality to create a real sense of presence. However, today, we are closer than humans have ever been. Visual Programming Languages made one giant leap towards commercial Visual Reality experiences which in turn grew the deman and funding. Jaron Lanier founded the company, which started developing and selling VR products to consumers after 1984. Lanier’s company developed the DataGlove, the Eyephone and Audiosphere. When these devices were combined it created an immersive VR experience.
The Eyephone was not the phone we know today, it was a stereoscopic viewer, with two small LCD screens that created the illusion of depth. The devices screens would be used to view computer generated 3D environments, but the graphics were not any higher than 360 x 240 pixels, and lacked vividity. Yet this was a great advancement for VR as working alongside the images was the Dataglove. The user would wear the gloves on their hands and connected wires inside the glove would send out beams of light, this was tracked by the computer and the users hands were translated into the 3D digital space. This meant the user could interact with objects in the 3D environment of the EyePhone. This evolution added huge user interactivity, but due to the technology of the 1980’s, it lacked vividity and complexity.
Sega were the first games company to start developing VR headgear. In 1991, they announced they would have a VR add on to the Sega Genesis games console. Sega aimed to create a lightweight headset, equipped with two LCD screens in the visor, headphones and sensors to track and react to head movements (Sega). Despite being comfortable for the user, the onscreen graphics were unable to keep up with the tracked head movements, and caused motion sickness, which was now what we call cybersickness, and so it was never released to consumers. The quality of the technology was not on par with the intentions.
Next, Nintendo attempted to create VR technology for their Virtual Boy in 1995. It did not appeal to consumers as the performance was not as described.
“It has always been Nintendo’s strategy to introduce new hardware systems only when technological breakthroughs allow us to offer innovative entertainment at a price that appeals to a worldwide audience. Virtual Boy delivers this and more. It will transport game players into a ’virtual utopia’ with sights and sounds unlike anything they’ve ever experienced — all at the price of a current home video game system.”
-“Virtual Boy” (2004).
The Virtual Boy used LED arrays, which created a bright sharp image, and a high resolution for a low price, but could only display red graphics on a black background. The user had to lean into the display, and often experienced headaches with prolonged use of the device.
The next greater step towards interactivity in VR came from SAS3TM, or SAS cubeTM, which was the first PC-based cubic room. It featured a room full of projectors and sensors which reacted to people in the room. Due to the evolution in computing, a few cheap computers were able to control the sensors and projectors, instead of large supercomputers. The system projected stereoscopic images across the room including the floor, this produced a virtual landscaped, that paired with the users 3D glasses which tracked head movements, created a completely immersive experience you could navigate. The sensors in the 3D glasses were not enough to create tactile feedback, so despite the experience being immersive, it was not complex. The search for the perfect VR experience continued.
1.3 Social Media and Virtual Reality
One of the real surges in VR Advances came from Palmer Freeman Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR. In 2014 Luckey developed the consumer device Oculus Rift, a high-end visor headset featuring a high speed IMU and a 5.6 inch LCD, visible through dual lenses. The lenses provided a 90 degrees horizontal and 110 degrees vertical stereoscopic 3d perspective (Oli Welsh, 2012)