Chapter 12 - Looking for the Ultimate Display: A Brief History of Virtual Reality

Abstract

Throughout recorded history, we have created ways to bring imagined worlds and stories into our own reality in the forms of art, literature, and, in the last century, digital media. From storytelling to modern virtual reality (VR) devices, artists and inventors have tried to capture their audiences by making them feel present in an alternate reality. Presence is the felt sense of the virtual environment being real, and it is dependent on the vividity and interactivity of the simulation, as well as user characteristics. As expected, inducing a subjective sense of presence has become more reliable as technology advances. As the sense of presence improves, the technology steps forward toward the Ultimate Display, a conceptual device that is an essential copy of reality and allows the user to transcend their physical bodies. Oculus, Samsung, and Microsoft, among others, have brought mainstream attention to VR in 2016. Modern technology is able to induce presence more reliably than before, and the elements of the Ultimate Display appear to be near at hand.