And All That Hype, Around the World
“Don’t shade your eyes; plagiarize!” (Tom Lehrer) Why VRtifacts matters. “I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work. Had I worked fifty or ten or even five years before, I would...
And All That Hype, Head Mounted Displays, In the Movies
From the 1995 made for TV B movie Evolver, check out their head mounted display of...
And All That Hype, VR Companies, VR Publications, Where Are They Now?
I wrote this for a 1991 Meckler conference presentation. Still smiling at my naivete! It’s tough trying to manage one of these businesses. Every time one of my vendors/bankers/landlord/ etc., asks what we do, and I say “Virtual Reality,” their...
Around the World, Head Mounted Displays, Stereoscopic 3D, VR Companies
Recently I got my hands on brand new Vuzix video-see-through augmented reality HMD – Wrap 920 AR. It’s not quite a consumer product, it’s more focused on R&D in Augmented Reality field, there are small amount of information about it on the net and few people...
And All That Hype, In the Movies, On TV, Stereoscopic 3D, VR Companies
We all know that the 1950’s were the golden age of 3D movies, Hollywood’s attempt to fend off the rapidly growing television audience. Their 3D thrust was short lived, and with a few exceptions, we enjoyed almost 50 years of 2D bliss. This time around 3D...
Around the World, Head Mounted Displays, On TV
Based on a mix of US and Japanese technology, this brief news segment shows a vibrant VR community in 1990 Japan. There’s gloves and HMDs from VPL, although the LCD displays inside the helmet are from Sony Japan. There’s also a nice augmented reality...
Around the World, Head Mounted Displays, Stereoscopic 3D, Where Are They Now?
Suddenly, I found the information that USSR army, just before World War 2 developed electronic head-mounted infra-red night-vision goggles for tank crew! It is not exactly a virtual reality subject, but nevertheless it’s early days of electronic HMD’s in...
And All That Hype, Head Mounted Displays, VR Publications, Where Are They Now?
Scenes from a typical day in the virtual world of tomorrow: You wake up and attend to your daily bathroom rituals, which unfortunately will never be replaced by any virtual reality process… Thus, after your real world morning ceremonies are completed, it’s...
Head Mounted Displays, Stereoscopic 3D
Size matters! If you ask the manufacturers of Head Mounted Displays over the past 15 years, they would echo that mantra, but it’s SMALL size that they’re boasting. Indeed, those tiny little eye glasses size VR displays look cool (from the outside), but...
Around the World, Game Systems, Head Mounted Displays, How-To; Teardowns; Tutorials, Position Trackers
Several months ago I shipped off an MRG2.2 to Mnemonic in the Ukraine. He said he wanted to do a few mods and some experimenting. Little did I know that he would put together a totally sweet augmented reality system, where the view inside the VR helmet combined the...
And All That Hype, Around the World, Head Mounted Displays, VR Companies, Where Are They Now?
Two snippets from the old, old school of VR, circa 1991, pitching a reputable UK firm – Division (acquired by PTC in 1999.) Featured are a couple of helmets from VPL Research using LEEP optics and cloth/velcro enclosures. One HMD appears to have been modeled...
Head Mounted Displays, How-To; Teardowns; Tutorials, Stereoscopic 3D
If you look yourself in the eyes, you’ll start to realize that your eyes and your head are different than anyone else’s. The spacing between your eyes, known as the interpupilary distance is about 65mm, but this varies from 50mm to about 75mm, depending on...
And All That Hype, Head Mounted Displays, Stereoscopic 3D
Over at Meant to be Seen 3D, in answer to a forum post looking for the perfect HMD, board vet, cybereality took the time to respond in depth… Money quote: Well, sadly to say it, you will probably be waiting for a long time. There is nothing I know of on the...
Around the World, Head Mounted Displays, Stereoscopic 3D
Who can remember doing all their 3D animation in MS-DOS? Back in the day, there was Gary Yost’s 3D-Studio (not Max!) licensed to and supported by AutoDesk. Now, who remembers creating stereoscopic animation with 3D Studio? VREX had a great little plugin that...
Head Mounted Displays, Stereoscopic 3D, VR Companies
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 optics. I came across a more...
