Virtual Reality 50

Now, if you don't yet know what virtual reality is (fictitious Reality, VR), or augmented reality (augmented Reality, AR), then you really are out! If you've got a rudimentary idea of virtual reality and you know what a startup that Facebook bought 2 billion dollars last year, this article is for you! Today we will look at the history of virtual reality, with your profound understanding, why virtual reality will be the next few years of technology hotspots.

60 's

Virtual reality? Not the latest technology? Yes and No. In fact, the first prototype of virtual reality technology appeared in the autumn of 1968, nearly half a century ago, in this sense, virtual reality is not new. However, virtual reality is also in recent years to appear in the public view, known and gradually become a hot topic. You must still be skeptical, after all, in 1968: the first mouse was born at Stanford University; personal computer (PC) at that time was not a person, not to play 3D games on the PC, we even have no video card, how could there be virtual reality of the prototype? In fact, I'm just as weird as you are, but this 21-second video can testify for me:

This prototype has a very cool name: the Sword of Damocles (Sword of Damocles). The author of the prototype is the famous computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who is known as the father of the computer graphics and the virtual reality, and there is no mention of his many achievements here.

Why is the sword of Damocles the first prototype of virtual reality? Because it defines several elements of virtual reality:

Stereo Display: The prototype uses two 1-inch CRT monitors to display images from different perspectives to create stereoscopic vision.

Virtual screen generation: The cube in the video is real-time computed rendering.

Head position tracking: The prototype uses two ways to track the head position, mechanical connecting rods and ultrasonic testing. You're right, in 1968, this seemingly rudimentary prototype had three ultrasonic generators and four receivers to track head movements.

Virtual Environment Interaction: this link, the sword of Damocles seems to be sorry for their cool name. Because the only way to interact with this device is by hand-operated handles.

Model generation: Although this is just a simple cube with only 8 vertices, it is really a model built from space coordinates. If you look carefully enough, you should see that the simple cube in the video changes with a person's perspective.

It must be admitted that the sword of Damocles is somewhat humble in modern terms, but given that this is the archetype of the 1968, you have to marvel at this transcendent work. It is not difficult to imagine that even the mouse has not been invented the era, so "crazy" concept, it can only be put in the laboratory ash. In fact, Ivan Sutherland's paper, published in the fall of 1968, had little impact and virtual reality did not become a topic in that era.

80 's

Time has advanced to the 1980 years. The most important change at this time is that all the devices that make up the virtual reality can be purchased independently!

Stereo display: The market has been able to buy a Sony-produced portable LCD display. Moreover, we can buy 35mm wide-angle lenses at that time, so that the breadth of the field can be guaranteed at close range (no distortion correction). What is a distortion correction? Think of the effect of font deformation when reading with a magnifying glass!

Virtual screen generation: At that time the video card can render thousands of triangles per second, and can already show complex images.

Head position tracking: Polhemus Company has developed 6 degrees of freedom of the head tracking equipment, although the use of distance is limited, but compared to mechanical links and ultrasonic, precision greatly improved not to say, but also save a lot of shackles.

Virtual Environment Interaction: Gloves with joint motion sensors.

Model generation: At that time the graphics card can also be real-time three-dimensional modeling.

In 1987, another famous computer scientist, Jaron Lanier, pieced up a 100,000 dollar virtual reality helmet. The helmet looks a bit like Oculus, but this virtual reality system is the first VR commercial product to be put on the market.

Today

Time to advance to this day. If in the 80 's, the basic technology of virtual reality has been developed, then today, virtual reality technology compared to the past has a qualitative leap!

Three-dimensional display: the smartphone PPI has exceeded 500, brightness and color are the 80 's display technology can not be compared.

Virtual screen generation: Today's best desktop graphics card can render billions of triangles per second, even the graphics processing unit on the phone can easily reach tens, smooth rendering 3D game.

Head position tracking: The newest IMU (Inertial measurement unit), not only compact, but also very accurate.

Virtual environment Interaction: body sense control, gesture recognition, voice control and so on.

Model generation: 3D games are already on the PC and mobile platform, in this respect, the corresponding technology has been very mature.

Future

Personal computers (PCS) have taken decades from prototypes to popularity; The internet revolution has been connected to the world for more than 10 of years, while smartphones and mobile internet have taken up almost every aspect of modern life in just under 10 years. What will be the next exciting technology after the information revolution? At present, domestic and foreign more consistent view is: Vr/ar hardware equipment, the application of the new three-dimensional interaction in vr/ar, and based on Vr/ar device application content, is the next new revolution!