V-Rtifacts » VR Companies http://www.VRtifacts.com When Virtual Reality Was Always Virtual Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:03:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 V-Rtifacts http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/57630c67b3a17d3cfebc3cb15325572b?s=48&d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536 http://www.VRtifacts.com W Industries – In the Beginning… http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/w-industries-in-the-beginning/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/w-industries-in-the-beginning/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:11:13 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=2611
  • The Games That Would Be King
  • Yet Another Fashion Emergency – J D Roth Talks Virtuality on GamePro TV
  • All Brawn – Virtuality 1000CS HMD
    • ]]>     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 after the commercial introduction of Virtuality’s Series 1000 Amiga based systems.

    The excerpts below offer a taste of the VR buzz in 1991, but take the time to read the entire history!

    A video clip from an early 80′s episode of the BBC TV programme “Tomorrow’s World” showed some of the early work of Dr Waldern.  The “Roaming Caterpillar” (as it was known) was shown being used by presenter Maggie Philbin to examine a virtual room.  The display was a large B/W monitor with handles on each side, supported by a flexible arm on castors covered by a concertina of rubber (the “caterpillar”). The image displayed was a wire-frame view of the “contents” of the (actually empty) room. The location of the monitor was sensed by 3 fixed speakers emitting audible clicks in a fixed sequence, with the time taken to reach microphones being used to calculate the distance.  It was also possible to detect the position of the user’s fingers by wearing tubes on them, with microphones and wires attached to a control unit. By pinching her fingers together in the right place, the presenter picked up the receiver of a virtual telephone and left it suspended in space.

    Their second HMD, another tethered system, was known as the “giraffe”. This featured mechanical 2D head-tracking.

    The fourth device to be built was much slimmer, featuring a magnetic head-tracker and twin LCD screens. It is of interest to note that the head-mounted part of the device allowed for adjustment of inter-occular spacing. At the time it was thought that the correct adjustment of this distance to suit each viewer would be vital to the stereoscopic effect. Mr Rowley pointed out that it was later found not to be so important, as long as the exit pupil of the optics was made large enough.

    In November 1990 the “Stand-Up” unit was launched at the Computer Graphics 90 exhibition staged at London’s Alexandra Palace. At the same time the parent company went into liquidation, but fortunately W Industries had been sold just prior to this to another company, which also owns the Wembley Stadium in London.

    Related posts:

    1. The Games That Would Be King
    2. Yet Another Fashion Emergency – J D Roth Talks Virtuality on GamePro TV
    3. All Brawn – Virtuality 1000CS HMD

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/w-industries-in-the-beginning/feed/ 0     The Games That Would Be King http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/the-games-that-would-be-king/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/the-games-that-would-be-king/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:05:39 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=2605
  • Yet Another Fashion Emergency – J D Roth Talks Virtuality on GamePro TV
  • W Industries – In the Beginning…
  • All Brawn – Virtuality 1000CS HMD
    • ]]>     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 their “innovations” in finances were not so successful. Arcade operators had a difficult time breaking even; motivated by their IPO, W extended credit to these operators to bolster their sales figures; and by 1996 W was in receivership leaving stockholders and vendors less than whole.

    However… Virtuality, first using an Amiga platform and later a 486 PC, achieved a remarkable quality of game play for those early years. This collection of videos will give you a flavor. Thanks go out to Fronzel who generously compiled many of these. Watch!

    Related posts:

    1. Yet Another Fashion Emergency – J D Roth Talks Virtuality on GamePro TV
    2. W Industries – In the Beginning…
    3. All Brawn – Virtuality 1000CS HMD

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/the-games-that-would-be-king/feed/ 0     Back In The USSR http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/back-in-the-ussr/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/back-in-the-ussr/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:50:51 +0000 Mnemonic http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=2000
  • Build Your Own 3D Shutter Glasses Controller for Field Interlaced Stereoscopic Viewing
  • Fear of Flying? Try the Forte VFX-1
  • Liquid Image MRG2.2 Disassembly and Potential Upgrades
    • ]]>

    VFX-3D Head Mounted Display

    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 years after IBM-compatible PC’s settled down in Russia, Ukraine and other countries. PC’s are finally moved aside ZX Spectrum platform which was most popular home computer in late eighties and early nineties here.

    ELSA Revelator shutter-glasses

    Consumer VR started with ELSA Revelator shutter glasses, Forte VFX-1, and i-Glasses HMD’s (which are still can be found from time to time in private geek collections).

    These devices had much higher price here than in USA (with more than two-times higher cost), multiply this with poor level of life in after-perestroyka times, and it’s became obvious that only reach geeks were able to buy such stuff for home use, other soviet-born hackers and cyberpunks only dreamed about VR, not to mention other peoples.

    According to these articles (in Russian):

    Forte VFX1 Introduction in Moscow

    In 1995 Moscow company – Compulink signed contact with Forte to be exclusive reseller of VFX-1 in post-USSR countries. They settled the starting price in 1495 USD for a helmet and, as they say, in a first five days sold 25 units.

    There were few attempts to make VR-arcades on base of VFX-1 helmet and some 486’s or early Pentium PC’s. Such setups were made by particular enthusiasts and placed in computer-clubs which were like modern internet-cafes but gaming-oriented. Main games played with VR were: DOOM, Heretic, Duke Nukem, Descent, Magic Carpet, Comanche-3, and later – Quake 1.
    State of customer-VR at that time combined with early desktop games not always satisfied player’s expectations, and highly viable misconception was born – “VR is fun but it can hurt your eyes and your mind, and you can’t use it for serious gaming”.
    Particularly we had a few of such VR arcades here in Ukraine, but they lived for a short time, and very soon they disappeared. Even newer VR hardware (like VFX-3D, P5 data gloves) and newer games didn’t save the tendency.

    VFX-3D caged in a computer club

    Virtual Reality technology at post-USSR in nineties was so unusual, rare and expensive, that only very small amount of people actually tried it. Still in our time many people here, even technically educated, think of this technology only from sci-fi point of view, not like this technology does really exists. They saw movies like “Lawnmower Man” and “Johnny Mnemonic” and that’s it, VR is only a concept from these movies for most peoples here.
    Small publicity and wrong understanding of technology leads generally to ignoring of VR by scientific institutes in post-USSR countries. In opposite to western-world (USA and Europe) there were no VR labs in technical Universities, and still we don’t have any. Students of technical specialties even don’t know about VR psychological studies, 3D User Interfaces, industrial VR, or other specific threads of big scientific tree that was born by VR itself. Only realtime-graphics is widely known because game-industry context.

    Virtusphere

    However few Russian scientists were engaged with Virtual Reality in nineties, among them Ray and Nurulla Latipovs, two brothers that invented Virtusphere – VR locomotion device. Yet they were able to build device and business in USA.

    Some people that get in touch with VR at earlier times found internet-communities that were intended to be VR communities (like Really.Ru ); however they very quickly turned to communities of only stereoscopic enthusiasts. These communities recently received fresh blood with new world-wide “Avatar” 3D hype. Nowadays most popular HMD’s among VR enthusiasts of post USSR countries are eMagin Z800, new iGlasses i-3PC, Vuzix VR920, and Saibex 3D640.

    Russian manufactured panoramic shutter-glasses “Stel 3DS-GS”

    Mostly, people concentrated on stereoscopy itself and prefer to buy shutter-glasses with proper monitors, or projection systems. As example of “made in Russia” tech – in early 2000 corporation Stel located at Moscow presented their stereoscopic shutter glasses with very “unusual” panoramic design named “Stel 3DS-GS”.

    Funniest thing with recent 3D hype in Ukraine, is that most popular 3D tech now is seems to be anaglyph, you can buy it almost everywhere, sometimes by ridiculous prices. You can even buy red-blue conversion of classical 2D movies, such as Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather”.

    New Russian military helicopter stereoscopic HMD (designed for Mi-28)

    Actually VR in limited aspects is used now internally in R&D of some big companies and in military purposes, but this rather exception than common rule.

    Editor’s note: The authors are principals at the pioneering Ukraine VR firm VRM. The IEEE prize winning team of Maxim Lysak and Viktor Kuropyatnik specialize in VR, User Interfaces, and Simulation.

    Related posts:

    1. Build Your Own 3D Shutter Glasses Controller for Field Interlaced Stereoscopic Viewing
    2. Fear of Flying? Try the Forte VFX-1
    3. Liquid Image MRG2.2 Disassembly and Potential Upgrades

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/back-in-the-ussr/feed/ 0     The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now! http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/the-city-and-the-stars-vr-a-billion-years-from-now/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/the-city-and-the-stars-vr-a-billion-years-from-now/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:59:08 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=1890
  • PT-01 – A Rare Breed Gains Five Stars (If You Keep It On the Shelf!)
  • AT&T Shows Us Somebody Else’s Future
  • Is VR the New Wasteland? (from 1993….)
    • ]]>     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? Yes, its somewhat ironic that the network is named “Diaspar”, as this is Arthur C. Clarke’s vision of a city some one billion years in the future, as in: “Diaspar will be a great city for hype-meisters…”

    Arthur C. Clarke’s Tale of One Billion Years Into the Future

    OK, to be fair, Diaspar did promise some sort of shared virtual worlds (based on Rend386 and your dial-up connection), but that trebled the per hour cost of the service. And yes, they had an online store where you could buy a VictorMaxx StuntMaster HMD (we’re getting closer to the hype now!), but its not clear how the helmet ties into their future interactive offerings. Pricing is shown below, or click on it to see the entire product slick.

    Related posts:

    1. PT-01 – A Rare Breed Gains Five Stars (If You Keep It On the Shelf!)
    2. AT&T Shows Us Somebody Else’s Future
    3. Is VR the New Wasteland? (from 1993….)

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/the-city-and-the-stars-vr-a-billion-years-from-now/feed/ 0     Virtual Boy – Another Perspective… http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/virtual-boy-another-perspective/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/virtual-boy-another-perspective/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:00:25 +0000 fronzel http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=1543
  • Number 5 in PC World’s “Ugliest Products in Tech History” – VIRTUAL BOY
  • 10 Reasons Why Virtual Reality Did Not Become a Standard
  • 1995 Virtual IO I-Glasses
    • ]]>

    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 that simply didn’t sell.
    It Came From the Third Dimension!

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Actually when you look back over a 15 year distance it is quite irritating that it was such a failure – after all Nintendo always had big successes with technically disappointing hardware – after the SNES, Nintendo constantly produced low tech consoles – not crap but low tech. With Super Nintendo they were technically “on par” (or at least close) with SEGA’s Genesis. With the original Game Boy they started the actual “wonder” – offering the console with the least attractive hardware at the best price and selling millions of them as the games are simply fun. This worked well with the game boy – although even for 1989 the tech was devastatingly poor, it sold like sliced bread. SEGA released the Game Gear one year later which had a much higher resolution full color screen, faster processor and better sound (If you can call the game boy’s beeping even sound) and sold worse. They pulled the same over and over with later consoles, I don’t even wanna go into detail.
    Gaming In The Clinton Years

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    But back to the Virtual Boy – why didn’t the low tech trick work here? If you take a closer look at the Virtual boy and play a few of the games it suddenly becomes quite clear.

    The Virtual Boy was originally planned as a funky VR headset alike console. I think it originally even included a headtracker and a better display. What happened then will never be fully known. My guess is that some management guy looked at the cost and was like “OMG, thats like 10 times what we wanted to spend, cut this, cut that and take this cheap crap”. The original Virtual Boy design planned to use color screens, prolly the same displays as they were common in all low tech consumer VR helmets. Nintendo claimed that the color LCD caused users to see double – if you ever used a stereoscopic HMD you know that this is pretty much bullshit; who claims: “it has to be black and white or you see double?” Actually Black and Red in the case of the virtual boy. Fact is: back in the day, red LEDs were the cheapest available, so my guess is that Nintendo simply wanted it “cheap” as usual.

    The display itself – I haven’t even mentioned the display, but maybe its wrong to speak of a display at all. What would surprise most people is that although the Virtual boy is technically rather disappointing, the “display” is a remarkable piece of tech. No, not regarding resolution or picture quality – I am not a big fan of Black/Red 384 x 224 pixel displays, but if you ever opened up one you’d be like “WTF????”. Where you’d expect the display to be,  you’d only find one line of exactly 224 tiny red LED’s – and a mirror. The trick here is that the mirror rotates very fast and thus projects the light from the LED into the eye – 50 revolutions per second resulting in a 50 Hz Black&Red display. Although the “display” is nothing you’d like to watch a movie on it is still a remarkable piece of tech, low tech that surprises – i thought only the Russians were known for that.
    A Half-Breed Headset (Part 1)

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Another flaw was that it was originally planned as a headset – Nintendo obviously saw or played some VR arcade games and was like “w00t, the kids will love this”. In later development two things became obvious – the device was extremely heavy (It used 6 AA cells and the hardware was in the front, making it extremely heavy on the nose. The experience is comparable to the notorious Cybermaxx HMD – if you ever played a Cybermaxx you’ll know that users complained about their nose hurting after an hour of use, mine did hurt for a half day afterwards; I was already worried about permanent nasal damage… Kids and testers using the device concocted ridiculous ideas like playing it on the go or even while riding a bike which led to several small accidents; everyone knew game boy and expected Virtual Boy to be a “portable” device for sure, just from the name. After all the tripod stand looks ridiculous and people often laughed at it, but I bet none of them tried to wear this on their nose for an hour.

    So we got a crappy hardware and Nintendo – so why didn’t it lead to success? If you know the secret of Nintendo’s success it becomes quite obvious – the games. Game Boy became a hit mainly because it was affordable, cheap, very portable, batteries lasted quite long and it included easy fun games that were easy to understand. I think the main problem was that the typical Game Boy customer really knew the rough specs of the device and thus did not expect a full color 3D shooter with digitized speech and rendered cutscenes.

    But Virtual Boy expectations were different. The name, design and advertisement promised it – a Virtual reality console. Wow! We knew Virtual Reality from stunning multiplayer 360 degree virtual worlds, for example the first Virtuality Cs-1000 arcade machines first offered in 1991. Four years later we saw ridiculously expensive but impressive Home VR devices, most far over $1,000 – and now Nintendo brought out a VR headset for 150 bucks? They are known for their fun games, so lets get one.

    People knew that the monochrome graphics would not be too stunning, but of course everyone had some ideas about Virtual Reality – and that was the worst flaw: Everyone was disappointed.

    While Nintendo demonstrated that they understood what stereoscopy is and how to properly produce 3D effects they failed to make proper use of it. It simply isn’t enough to take a tennis title and be like “Okay lets take an old game boy tennis title, make the front character pop out a bit and end of story.”. Other than”Red Alarm”, all titles rather appeared to be 2D Games modded by amateurs to have basic 3D effects. Titles themselves are also a big reason for the consoles failure – Nintendo released the console in North America with a whopping 4 (FOUR) released games. Of these “Mario Tennis” and “Galactic pinball” were both “unnecessary” titles. Mario Tennis was a rather average tennis game with extremely simple graphics. It was one of those games you’d really just play 1 or 2 times because of the funny stereoscopic effect, but as soon as that wears off you realize how terribly boring it is. Galactic Pinball: If you love pinball you can get some fun out of it although it is quite simple, the stereoscopic effect is weak, just unnecessary gimmickry which wears off fast. Telero Boxer – one of the more innovative titles with 3D effects and 1st person boxing, is fun in the beginning, but the game is ultra repetitive, it’s a pain to play it again once you knocked down 2 dozens of opponents. As already mentioned – Red Alarm was a rather promising title, not being my kind of game, but as a “Spaceship flies through obstacle course and shoots” kind of game it seemed to be the only one that sort of made use of Virtual Boy’s stereoscopic capabilities.

    When Nintendo officially buried the Virtual Boy there were just 14 games on the North American market. If you also observed the Japanese market you could perceive the reason for its failure. It’s called “Insmouse no Yakata” and it is the only attempt to make a 3D shooter on the Virtual Boy; I instantly thought they ported Maze wars from 1974. The hardware was simply not sufficient to even make a simple 3D game.
    In the end the hardware was just a crappy stereoscopic gameboy. If it had been at least halfway portable and didn’t eat batteries like a monkey eats bananas it might have stood a chance. But for a console you only play at home you for sure did not want a monoscopic, single player machine with a handfull of available games.
    Pete’s Virtual Boy Game Collection

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    In the end it just goes to tell people “You get what you pay for”. People expected a Virtual Reality wonder and just got a 180 Dollar Gimmick without much real entertainment value. Why Nintendo released it is beyong my understanding – the ridiculous low number of titles and ridiculous short time on market underline that Nintendo didn’t really believe in it as well – from the beginning. My guess is that some of the higher manager was like “OMG, VR hype!!!! Lets just see how it develops, maybe it becomes a surprise hit.” Needless to say it didn’t.

    What is really the worst part in the story here is the sad role of Gunpei Yokoi. While he was the key figure in Nintendo’s whole success even before they got involved in Video games, he also was the producer/supervisor of many famous Nintendo titles that made the company write one success story after another. Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Ice Climber and Metroid are just a few of the many beloved bestsellers Yokoi designed. The characters he invented like Mario and Luigi are still  what most people identify Nintendo with and a commercial super success.

    Among his many brilliant creations is also the Game Boy, which was sold far over 100 million times world wide.

    But being grateful is not Nintendo’s strongest ability. Despite his merits, despite the remarkable effort to turn a color VR headset for 1000 Dollars into a 150 Dollar product and despite Nintendos failure to properly develop games for the system all blame was finally put on Yokoi. Nintendo had not been used to failure and it was probably over-reacted, but they finally asked the man who “built” Nintendo, the root of all success to resign. Around a year later Gunpei Yokoi got run over by a truck, he died on the scene.

    Related posts:

    1. Number 5 in PC World’s “Ugliest Products in Tech History” – VIRTUAL BOY
    2. 10 Reasons Why Virtual Reality Did Not Become a Standard
    3. 1995 Virtual IO I-Glasses

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/virtual-boy-another-perspective/feed/ 0     PT-01 – A Rare Breed Gains Five Stars (If You Keep It On the Shelf!) http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/1511/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/1511/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:36:50 +0000 fronzel http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=1511
  • The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now!
  • Virtual Boy – Another Perspective…
  • Back In The USSR
    • ]]>     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. The cons are that it uses quite cheap plastic and that the case is just “stick together” and it will easily fall apart. Why they didn’t even use a screw or so to fix it properly together is beyond my understanding.

    Another flaw is quite obvious – the sunshield which was obviously invented AFTER they started production as it looks like they cut off the visor of a baseball cap and clipped it to the device. They quite obviously realized that it’s not very immersive as they originally planned it. The sunshield is made of fabric and never stays in shape, it looks a bit like something you’d make yourself, not like it belongs to the device. Another terrible drawback is that it only accepts an A/V input. Yeah sure, it matches the device – no headtracker, no VGA input – a portable personal TV screen, w00t! I mean back in the days of VR who bought such stuff? People who were like “i wanna use it to watch TV” or Computer geeks like us? As a VR helmet it fails and for a TV replacement on the go its also not that handy as it lacks a receiver and see-through feature, so you definitely would not use it unless seated. No wonder it’s so rare, i couldn’t imagine anyone who’d really need or want it. More of a collectors piece. Also there was a stereoscopic version which had 2 AV input boxes. I must admit although i have seen this on several devices i never got how you use it “on the go”. Did they expect one to have 2 synchronized VCR on your belt? I always wondered why home devices came like this as i never found a way to get any use of having 2 AV signals.

    PT-01_Manual

    OK so far for the PT-01. Collectors Value: 5 stars (For the rarity, brand and original price tag), usability 1 Star (add a second star if you dont have a TV set and intend to only watch videos on it anyways).

    Related posts:

    1. The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now!
    2. Virtual Boy – Another Perspective…
    3. Back In The USSR

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/1511/feed/ 0     AT&T Shows Us Somebody Else’s Future http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/att-shows-us-somebody-elses-future/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/att-shows-us-somebody-elses-future/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:14:53 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=1063
  • The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now!
  • Regis Takes a Spin
  • Liquid Image MRG2.2 Disassembly and Potential Upgrades
    • ]]>     This final segment from AT&T’s 1993 Vision of the Future isn’t too far from what’s happenin’ here in 2010, but 17 years later, AT&T is still not a player.

    Part1 and Part2 are almost as much fun.

    Related posts:

    1. The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now!
    2. Regis Takes a Spin
    3. Liquid Image MRG2.2 Disassembly and Potential Upgrades

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/att-shows-us-somebody-elses-future/feed/ 0     Jaron Lanier Explains Why There’s Still Not A VR Bubble http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/jaron-lanier-explains-why-theres-still-not-a-vr-bubble/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/jaron-lanier-explains-why-theres-still-not-a-vr-bubble/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:58:30 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=1059
  • What to do with the Cable? – Dynamic Visions
  • Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
  • Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet
    • ]]>     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

    Related posts:

    1. What to do with the Cable? – Dynamic Visions
    2. Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
    3. Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/jaron-lanier-explains-why-theres-still-not-a-vr-bubble/feed/ 0     Siggraph ’92 Wrap http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/siggraph-92-wrap/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/siggraph-92-wrap/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:41:15 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=997
  • Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
  • Nothing New Under the Sun!
  • “Clearly In The Development Stage”
    • ]]>     The media drops in on Siggraph ’92 in Chicago:

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Definitely a show that I outsmarted myself on. Had an exhibitor’s badge from a friend (thanks Marilyn!), and while touring the exhibits before opening I found a booth where the exhibitor had bailed… it was empty. Grabbed my PhotoVR computer gear and Flight Helmet out of the car along with a company sign stashed in the spare tire well, and setup “our” booth. Nature (and I) abhor a vacuum. But, as the video above clearly demonstrates: if you’re not in the show program, you’re not gonna be on TV.

    The show wasn’t a total waste, met up with a college kid who was brimming with VR helmet ideas. Just a year later, Brad Burnett had launched his own company and a new head mount product, the Tier1.

    Related posts:

    1. Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
    2. Nothing New Under the Sun!
    3. “Clearly In The Development Stage”

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/siggraph-92-wrap/feed/ 0     1995 Virtual IO I-Glasses http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/1995-virtual-io-i-glasses/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/1995-virtual-io-i-glasses/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:40:39 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=657
  • How To Buy LCDs (in 1995)
  • 10 Reasons Why Virtual Reality Did Not Become a Standard
  • Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet
    • ]]>     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 affordable home VR headsets along with the Victormaxx cybermaxx and the fortevr VFX-1. The small and lightweight design made it comfortable to wear, but the enormous cable from the VGA-box to the Computer, the box itself, the cable to the glasses and the power supply rendered it a too large package to really “take everywhere”.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    They still work fine today, but the maximum input resolution of 640×480 makes a modern Windows Vista Desktop appear a bit crowded. For today’s standards the resolution and color depth are a bit too low to really enjoy watching 3D movies, but astonishingly the recent “Avatar” game by james Cameron works amazingly well and the nice graphics don’t look as bad as you might think on the low res.

    Related posts:

    1. How To Buy LCDs (in 1995)
    2. 10 Reasons Why Virtual Reality Did Not Become a Standard
    3. Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/1995-virtual-io-i-glasses/feed/ 0     Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/tearing-out-the-guts-of-a-virtual-research-vr-4-helmet/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/tearing-out-the-guts-of-a-virtual-research-vr-4-helmet/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:07:59 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=589
  • Nothing New Under the Sun!
  • Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
  • Take Flight in the Virtual World
    • ]]>     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 aspheric lenses, excellent fit to different heads, and provision for eyeglasses. The optics are timeless; used again in the V6, V8, and 15 years later in today’s Virtual Research VR-1280.

    All these HMDs rely on 1.3″ displays… so the challenge is out: to find improved LCDs to drop into the classic VR-4, although the resolution of the original displays isn’t half bad.

    So… in two parts… have a look inside the VR-4.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    and

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Related posts:

    1. Nothing New Under the Sun!
    2. Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
    3. Take Flight in the Virtual World

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/tearing-out-the-guts-of-a-virtual-research-vr-4-helmet/feed/ 2     Liquid Image MRG2.2 Disassembly and Potential Upgrades http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/liquid-image-mrg2-2-disassembly-and-potential-upgrades/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/liquid-image-mrg2-2-disassembly-and-potential-upgrades/#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:22:02 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=338
  • 6 lbs. 12 oz. – It’s a Baby Headmount! – Liquid Image MRG2
  • Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet
  • AT&T Shows Us Somebody Else’s Future
    • ]]>     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 to make this HMD stereoscopic?”

    It’s time to hurl the challenge back at you. These two videos explain in detail how to tear down an MRG2.2, what each of the components are, how they interconnect, and suggestions for how this puppy could be upgraded. If that’s not enough, head over to the V-Rtifacts store for a FREE download of all the technical info on the Sharp LCD, backlight, and all the MRG2.2 cable and connector pin outs.

    There ain’t no doubt that the LCD resolution can be upgraded, but the challenge is to see who can do it the most cost effectively. Stereoscopic viewing? The video suggests some possible approaches, but they’re untried as far as I know.

    Part 1

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Part 2

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Typical desktop magnifier, similar to what's used in the MRG2.2

    As you might have already guessed, my attorneys from Itchy & Twitchy, Esq. want you to know that disassembling and modifying electronics and power supplies can be dangerous and even life threatening. Don’t mess with this stuff if you don’t know what you’re doing. Thanks to Itchy and Twitchy, you really shouldn’t mess with this stuff, even if you do know what you’re doing. If you zap yourself, it’s not my fault; you were warned. And… don’t rub that thing, you could go blind!

    Related posts:

    1. 6 lbs. 12 oz. – It’s a Baby Headmount! – Liquid Image MRG2
    2. Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet
    3. AT&T Shows Us Somebody Else’s Future

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/liquid-image-mrg2-2-disassembly-and-potential-upgrades/feed/ 0     Nothing New Under the Sun! http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/nothing-new-under-the-sun/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/nothing-new-under-the-sun/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:21:30 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=335
  • Take Flight in the Virtual World
  • Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
  • LEEP On The Cheap
    • ]]>     It’s 1985 and there’s already a nice high resolution, wide field of view VR helmet (from VPL Research), glove system, and 6 DOF tracking of both helmet and glove, thanks to Scott Fisher and NASA Ames.  In particular, check out the LEEP wide FOV optics (from LEEP inventor Eric Howlett’s predecessor company Pop Optix.) These lenses became the optical basis for the Virtual Research Flight Helmet and several of the subsequent generation of VPL HMDs. 25 years later, and these lenses are still pretty much the reference standard for wide FOV. Presumably NASA funding covered the cost of the precision molds for the huge plastic lens elements.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Related posts:

    1. Take Flight in the Virtual World
    2. Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
    3. LEEP On The Cheap

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/nothing-new-under-the-sun/feed/ 0     Victormaxx Stuntmaster vs. PETA http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/victormaxx-stuntmaster-vs-peta/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/victormaxx-stuntmaster-vs-peta/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:57:30 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=331
  • The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now!
  • Nothing New Under the Sun!
  • Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet
    • ]]>     This totally excellent demo of the Victormaxx Stuntmaster helmet speaks for itself. Lyme disease aside, the Stuntmaster’s wretched optical qualities seem overly cruel to this beast.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Related posts:

    1. The City and the Stars – VR a Billion Years From Now!
    2. Nothing New Under the Sun!
    3. Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/victormaxx-stuntmaster-vs-peta/feed/ 0     Yet Another Fashion Emergency – J D Roth Talks Virtuality on GamePro TV http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/yet-another-fashion-emergency-j-d-roth-talks-virtuality-on-gamepro-tv/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/yet-another-fashion-emergency-j-d-roth-talks-virtuality-on-gamepro-tv/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:52:47 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=315
  • Aftershock and a Fashion Emergency
  • All Brawn – Virtuality 1000CS HMD
  • The Games That Would Be King
    • ]]>     The ill fated GamePro TV did a 1991 “Cutting Edge” feature on the original Virtuality arcade systems, including footage from their premier multi-player Dactyl Nightmare title. Be careful not to fry your eyeballs on host J.D. Roth’s outfit; did anyone actually dress like this? Roth incorrectly attributes the system to Spectrum Holobyte, who was for a short time, one of four US distributors for Virtuality systems. Did the revolutionary (for 1991) Virtuality system really need this infomercial?

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    Related posts:

    1. Aftershock and a Fashion Emergency
    2. All Brawn – Virtuality 1000CS HMD
    3. The Games That Would Be King

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/yet-another-fashion-emergency-j-d-roth-talks-virtuality-on-gamepro-tv/feed/ 0     Limitations and Drawbacks http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/limitations-and-drawbacks/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/limitations-and-drawbacks/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:33:07 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=311 Nina Ziv’s 1992 Merrill Lynch VR industry research report has an amusing section: Limitations and Drawbacks of VR Technology, in which she identifies “several problems with virtual reality technology which must be addressed if it is to succeed.”

    • Inadequate Image Resolution
    • Time Lag Between the User and the Virtual Reality System’s Response
    • Limited Position Tracking Systems
    • Cumbersome Equipment
    • Interpretation of Body Movements
    • Total Representation of the Senses
    • Simulation Sickness
    • Cost Factors

    She concludes: “Moreover, by the turn of the century, it is predicted that this technology will be widely available for business and home use.” The century turned 10 years ago and I’ll leave it to the readers to decide how many of these Limitations and Drawbacks have been overcome.

    No related posts.

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/vrcompanies/limitations-and-drawbacks/feed/ 0     Take Flight in the Virtual World http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/take-flight-in-the-virtual-world/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/take-flight-in-the-virtual-world/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:55:28 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/take-flight-in-the-virtual-world/
  • Nothing New Under the Sun!
  • Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
  • LEEP On The Cheap
    • ]]>     By 1991, the FlightHelmet was the third HMD  to feature Large Expanse Extra Perspective (LEEP) optics from Eric Howlett’s LEEP-VR. The Flight Helmet combined LEEP’s 100° field of view with an adjustable, comfortable and rugged packaging design. The use of a rear exiting cable as a counterweight made this HMD perfectly balanced.

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    LEEP optics were originally used in the mid 80′s by VPL Research to produce a custom (> $100,000) HMD for NASA. In 1989 VPL followed with their own product, the Eyephones which also integrated LEEP’s optics. LEEP followed a couple of years later with their own helmet, the CyberFace.

    FlightHelmet

    All these LEEP based helmets suffered from the same critical problem, the only color LCDs available were in small handheld consumer TVs. All three manufacturers simply stripped down these consumer TVs and integrated their guts into a head mounted display. The effect of spreading 240 horizontal pixels over a 100° field of view made each pixel seem like a floating football from the wearer’s perspective.

    CyberFace

    As second issue was that the LCDs were physically too wide to match anyone’s inter-pupilary spacing (the distance between your two eyes, about 55m-70mm.) Thus the graphics system supplying the images to each eye had to calculate images which did not completely overlap; or prisms were installed in both eyepieces to resolve the incorrect spacing.

    VPL Eyephones

    VPL Eyephones

    Epson’s entry into the small LCD (1.3″) market in 1992-1993 ended the age of LEEP helmets.

    David Cassidy is Happy to Wear the Flight Helmet

    David Cassidy is Happy to Wear the Flight Helmet

    Related posts:

    1. Nothing New Under the Sun!
    2. Myron Kruger Takes a Spin in the Flight Helmet
    3. LEEP On The Cheap

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/take-flight-in-the-virtual-world/feed/ 0     Arcade “Player Retainer” – HeadGames VR2000 http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/arcade-player-retainer-headgames-vr2000/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/arcade-player-retainer-headgames-vr2000/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:26:53 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=193
  • 6 lbs. 12 oz. – It’s a Baby Headmount! – Liquid Image MRG2
  • Virtual Boy – Another Perspective…
  • A Sweet Ride – IAAPA ’94
    • ]]>     IAPPA 1999 brought us another stand-up VR system from New York based HeadGames, the VR2000. Based on the Forte consumer head mounted display, the VR2000 also featured the “Player Retainer.” Initially I thought this was some special magic which ensured repeat play, as HeadGames projected up to $3,000/mo. revenue for this $25k system. To my chagrin the retention system is a waist high railing which keeps players from falling over. Good move!

    VR2000

    If anyone knows what became of HeadGames, add a comment below. The Wayback Machine shows them falling off the grid in 2001.

    Related posts:

    1. 6 lbs. 12 oz. – It’s a Baby Headmount! – Liquid Image MRG2
    2. Virtual Boy – Another Perspective…
    3. A Sweet Ride – IAAPA ’94

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/arcade-player-retainer-headgames-vr2000/feed/ 0     Narrow Field of View is Good… – CyberEye 100 http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/narrow-field-of-view-is-good-cybereye-100/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/narrow-field-of-view-is-good-cybereye-100/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:58:43 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=188
  • Nothing New Under the Sun!
  • LEEP On The Cheap
  • Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet
    • ]]>     1994 brought one of the first “lightweight” head mounted displays, the CyberEye from then San Jose based General Reality. Offered in both stereoscopic and monoscopic versions, the CyberEye featured a flip-up visor which allowed users to see keyboards and monitors in the “real” world. CyberEye’s introductory letter touts the benefits of narrow field of view optics:

    Dear Visualization Pioneer:

    …. Many toy manufacturers stretch today’s limited pixel-count LCD panels to provide a 70 deg. or even 110 deg. FOV, resulting in low-resolution blocky images, strange optical artifacts, and huge amounts of optical distortion at the image corners. Instead, CyberEye provides crisp, undistored images equivalent to a huge 7 ft. TV (at a distance of 12 ft.)

    Yes, in 1994, wide FOV head mounted displays revealed the transistor structure of the underlying LCD displays. I’m just not sure that narrow field of view makes for much of an immersive experience?

    CyberEye

    Related posts:

    1. Nothing New Under the Sun!
    2. LEEP On The Cheap
    3. Tearing Out the Guts of a Virtual Research VR-4 Helmet

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/narrow-field-of-view-is-good-cybereye-100/feed/ 0     Display Mounted Head? – Kimera http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/display-mounted-head-kimera/ http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/display-mounted-head-kimera/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:43:19 +0000 Tone http://www.VRtifacts.com/?p=182
  • Number 5 in PC World’s “Ugliest Products in Tech History” – VIRTUAL BOY
  • Virtual Boy – Another Perspective…
  • Another Gyro VR – Orbotron X O Tron VR
    • ]]>     The Kimera game system from Immersive Technologies appeared at the 1995 IAAPA show with a solution to the VR arcade’s most vexing challenge: how to keep the helmets from being damaged or stolen without a full time attendant. Taking their cue from the Fakespace Boom, Kimera had a floating/pivoting display, to which the game player leaned into and then moved about. Indeed, you would mount your head to the display. At 525 lbs., Kimera came with a proprietary game, Pyramid Pilot, custom designed for Immersive by the software developer Algorithm.

    immersive_technologies_kimera

    Related posts:

    1. Number 5 in PC World’s “Ugliest Products in Tech History” – VIRTUAL BOY
    2. Virtual Boy – Another Perspective…
    3. Another Gyro VR – Orbotron X O Tron VR

    ]]>     http://www.VRtifacts.com/hmds/display-mounted-head-kimera/feed/ 0