When Virtual Reality Was Always Virtual
PT-01 – A Rare Breed Gains Five Stars (If You Keep It On the Shelf!)
Ah well, a review of the PT-01 from Optics 1 ... Back in the days it was ridiculous expensive, like most of the VR stuff. The pros are that it is very light and optimized for mobile use, i love that it comes with a belt clip and can be driven...
Ascension Technology SpacePad 6DOF Tracker Teardown
Six degree of freedom (x, y, z, azimuth, elevation, and roll) are hard and expensive to come by these days. Stuff like the Wii remote, iPhone, and Droid only track rotations, not fine position (yes the GPS will find you within +- 10 meters, but I'm talking...
Number 5 in PC World’s “Ugliest Products in Tech History” – VIRTUAL BOY
Nintendo's 1995 Virtual Boy was a whole cartridge based game system inside a desktop-mounted-head stereoscopic immersive display. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi of Gameboy fame, and offered for $180 retail, the market was less than kind. It was withdrawn from...
Jaron Lanier Explains Why There’s Still Not A VR Bubble
Jaron walks us through all eleven reasons, from Gates Envy to Movie Projectors. Strangely enough I agree! The Top Eleven Reasons VR Has Not Yet Become Commonplace
Siggraph ’92 Wrap
The media drops in on Siggraph '92 in Chicago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8pBnuB5rys Definitely a show that I outsmarted myself on. Had an exhibitor's badge from a friend (thanks Marilyn!), and while touring the exhibits...
So Serious – 1980’s Virtual Reality from NASA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAuytnYU6JQ
CAVE® – A Virtual Reality Theater – 1993
In 1991, EVL produced its first CAVE® (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) prototype, a two screen stereo projection system with single-user tracking and navigation. In late 1991 - early 1992, a 4 screen (3 walls/floor) CAVE® system - now...
1995 Virtual IO I-Glasses
1995 Video of Virtual io's I-Glasses. Virtual reality Head Mounted Display with headtracking. This was the first i-glasses version released and had much lower resolution than the i-glasses they sell today. Back in 1995 this was one of the first...
Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet
Last week I shredded a Liquid Image MRG2.2. This week we go for the classic Virtual Research VR-4 stereoscopic head mounted display. There's a lot to love about the VR-4: wide field of view optics, adjustable interpupilary distance, coated...
Navi Sex In The Lawnmower Man?
Anyone else see the resemblance between this 18 year old Lawnmower Man copulating couple and their doppelgangers in Avatar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYkgWJzJ6fE https://youtu.be/9Ru9fw7szQw
Liquid Image MRG2.2 Disassembly and Potential Upgrades
I've gotten a ton of emails hurled at me about the Liquid Image MRG2.2 VR helmet. The gist of most of them is: "Hey, I love the wide field of view and how rugged the MRG2.2 is, but I wish I could upgrade the LCD resolution, and, is there a way...
Virtusphere – Virtual Hamster
This looks like the closest thing yet to a real-life holodeck! The Virtusphere is (as the name suggests) a large hollow sphere which sits on a set of computer monitored wheels. This allows the sphere to rotate a complete 360º whilst still allowing the...