Virtual Realty
Full Title or Meme
A computer generated, fully immersive experience designed to emulate the real-world.
The Metaverse
The first use of the term "Metaverse" was in Neil Stevenson's novel Snow Crash to describe a fully formed virtual ecosystem.
Technical History
This was first anticipated in 1965 in a short but memorable paper by Ivan Sutherland, a scientist at the vanguard of computer graphics, that imagined what he called “The Ultimate Display.” This was “a looking-glass into the mathematical wonderland” that engaged all bodily senses. Users stepping through this looking-glass would be immersed in “a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in … a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal.” By 1968, Sutherland had built the Sword of Damocles, a behemoth head-mounted display that many recognize as the first VR prototype.[1]
Implementations
- 2023-12 Wired magazine "Golf Goes Wild" shows how a room can be constructed to show a virtual golf course while people hit real golf ball and get a report on where the ball would travel based on camera watching the player's actions.
