VR Companies
Flight Helmet – Redux
IMHO, the Virtual Research Flight Helmet was, and still is, the ultimate head mounted display, except of course, it needed modern high resolution LCD panels. Otherwise, it had incredible field of view, great ergonomics, and unbeatable LEEP...
Retrospective photo review of Forte VFX1 Virtual Reality system
Forte VFX1 was the most advanced, complex and expensive consumer VR system that appeared on the market during VR craze in mid-nineties. Introduced in 1995, VFX1 was in the shops all around the world in 1996. [scrollGallery=id:1;] Hardware...
Teardown – Virtual Research V6
1995 brought us the V6 head mounted display from Virtual Research, the successor to the excellent design of the VR-4. The V6 doubled the overall resolution while retaining the great optics, field of view, comfort, and ease of use originally...
Setup A Fastrak – Fast!
For many years, and perhaps still today, the Polhemus Fastrak was/is the reference standard for low lag, high accuracy six degrees of freedom (6DOF) tracking. Used extensively to track head mounted displays and data gloves, this magnetic...
W Industries – In the Beginning…
Chris Hand from Leicester Polytechnic offers a delightful history of W Industries, the company who brought us the various Virtuality VR game systems. His history begins in the early 80's and takes us only to early October of 1991, not long...
The Games That Would Be King
From 1991 to 1996 W Industries Virtuality systems defined the image of VR in the location based entertainment arena. Here in the US, Horizon Entertainment was their sole distributor. W Industries was remarkably innovative with their use of technology, but...
Virtuality Sphere (HQ)
Sphere is a game that was made for the Virtuality 2000 Series sitdowns (SD). You control a tank and have to capture a sphere in the battlefield while avoiding to be shot by other tanks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6r2kdZydzE
Back In The USSR
USA and other western world faced consumer-focused Virtual Reality boom in late 80s and early 90s, accurately when USSR is fall apart. VR came to big industrial cities of post USSR later in 1995 – 1998, when VR hype slowly begin to fall down in...
The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now!
Back when VR really had some cred, the Diaspar Virtual Reality Network hopped on the bandwagon. Imagine, if you will, a dial-up service with a feature list, every item containing the phrase "will be", as in this feature will be available... but...
Virtual Boy – Another Perspective…
I don't really agree with the Virtual Boy being VR's "nail in the coffin". I think it was just one of many crappy products. Maybe it could have saved the VR hype for a while if it was a big success, but as it is it's just one of the many VR obscurities...
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...
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...
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...