According to Wikipedia: the term Virtual Reality (VR) refers to a computer technology that simulates the physical presence of a user in an artificially generated environment by software, an environment in which the user can interact.
Still according to Wikipedia, Augmented Reality (AR) is the superposition of reality and elements (sounds, 2D images, 3D, videos, etc.) calculated by a computer system in real time.
Augmented reality can be used in two different ways:
- By a direct vision: by the superposition of digital information between our eye and the real world using a screen, (like Google Glass for example).
- By an indirect vision: using a camera that films the real and displays the augmented images on a screen (like Pokémon Go for example)
What are the differences between virtual reality
and augmented reality?
Virtual reality invents another world. This technology puts us in a world modeled in three dimensions, in which it is possible to move and interact. This technology is generally 75% virtual and 25% real.
Augmented reality is the mix of virtual reality and real life. This technology is usually 25% virtual and 75% real.
The first references to the idea of virtual reality as
we understand it today are not new.
Edwin Link
Edwin Albert Link, primarily an organ builder and by passion a pioneer in aviation, underwater archeology, and submersibles. He is most known for inventing and marketing in 1929 a simulator called “Link Trainer” or “Blue Box“.
This simulator was used by the US Army to train pilots during the Second World War.
Indeed after, having his flight permit, Edwin Link began to imagine a more effective way to learn to fly cialis koupit. With his knowledge of flying, he managed to develop a machine that was the first immersive device creating a universe of virtual reality.
The association of the senses – Morton Heilig
It was in 1961 that Morton Leonard Heilig, a philosopher and documentary filmmaker, developed his idea of “Movies of the future” and filed a license
for his device « Sensorama ».
For total immersion, Sensorama could display stereoscopic 3D (a method of giving an illusion of depth to an image or a video) and allowed to watch among five films, while cutting off the user’s external stimuli.
Physically similar to an arcade game terminal, the spectator could, after inserting a piece, choose from five experiences:
- A motorcycle ride through the streets of Brooklyn
- A bicycle route
- Buggy (light-duty all-terrain vehicle with two seats) in the dunes of a desert
- A helicopter flight
- Exchanging a few steps with a belly dancer
Morton Heilig never managed to secure the funds needed for industrial production of Sensorama because the machines were very expensive. There were also very few films for this technology because filming involved the use of a special camera.
Heilig, however, didn’t stop at Sensorama because he also filed a license for the Telesphere Mask the same year. It was an immersion headset for once again stereoscopic television which is surprisingly reminiscent of our current virtual reality headsets.
