Around the World, Head Mounted Displays, How-To; Teardowns; Tutorials
For 150 years people have been free-viewing stereoscopic photos (and more recently videos) in a side by side cross-eyed format, where the left view is positioned to the right of the right view. You’re force to cross your eyes like an optical contortionist. For...
How-To; Teardowns; Tutorials, Position Trackers
Not long ago I needed a whole bunch of head trackers for just one week. Not wanting to invest tens of thousands of dollars in high-end tracking systems, I came up with an easy DIY head tracking system constructed from the guts of a Gyration Air Mouse. The Air Mouse...
Game Systems, VR Companies
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....
Around the World, Head Mounted Displays, VR Companies
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 USA. That was in a few...
And All That Hype, In the Movies
I got some comments and messages from people complaining: “Ok there is a 3D wave, but i don’t see VR.” So… I thought I’d write expand on the topic a bit more. VR is definitely in the media and in the movies again. “But...
And All That Hype, Head Mounted Displays, VR Companies, Where Are They 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 when?...
And All That Hype, Where Are They Now?
The somewhat short lived “Virtual Reality Systems” magazine ran an irregular column “Bitz and Bytz” subtitled “These news items are excerpts of what happened in the world of Virtual Reality during the past 12 months.” Have a...
How-To; Teardowns; Tutorials, VR Publications
1992 brought a non-virtual swarm of young and eager students to every VR event (and there were WAY too many) under the sun. Perhaps there were massive show discounts for attendees who were too young to drink legally, but members of the Virtual Reality Alliance of...
And All That Hype, Head Mounted Displays
So well you probably know that it is not a standard that new computers get shipped with VR headsets, although you might have believed that during the mid-90s VR craze. In 1995 many analysts – serious people – predicted that in 10 years most computers would...
Game Systems, Head Mounted Displays, VR Companies
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...
Head Mounted Displays, VR Companies
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 by a common battery....
How-To; Teardowns; Tutorials, Position Trackers
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 about...
Game Systems, Head Mounted Displays
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 the...
