User:Makinlyn.W/Immersion (virtual reality)

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Immersive virtual reality is a technology that aims to completely immerse the user inside the computer generated world, giving the impression to the user that they have "stepped inside" the synthetic world. This is achieved by either using the technologies of Head-Mounted Display(HMD) or multiple projections. HMD allows VR to be projected right in front of the eyes and allows users to focus on it without any distraction. The earliest attempts at developing immersive technology date back to the 1800s. Without these early attempts, the world of immersive technology would never have reached its advanced technological state we have today. The many elements that surround the realm of immersive technology all come together in different ways to create different types of immersive technology including virtual reality and pervasive gaming. While immersive technology has already had an immense impact on our world, its progressive growth and development will continue to make lasting impacts among our technological culture.

Origin[edit]
One of the first devices that was designed to look like and function as a virtual reality headset was called a stereoscope. It was invented in the 1830s during the early days of photography, and it used a slightly different image in each eye to create a kind of 3D effect. Although as photography continued to develop in the late 1800s, stereoscopes became more and more obsolete. Immersive technology became more available to the people in 1957 when Morton Heilig invented the Sensorama cinematic experience that included speakers, fans, smell generators, and a vibrating chair to immerse the viewer in the movie. When one imagines the VR headsets they see today, they must give credit to The Sword of Damocles which was invented in 1968 and allowed users to connect their VR headsets to a computer rather than a camera. In 1991, Sega launched the Sega VR headset which was made for arcade/home use, but only the arcade version was released due to technical difficulties. Augmented reality began to rapidly develop within the 1990s when Louis Rosenberg created Virtual Fixtures, which was the first fully immersive augmented reality system, used for the Air Force. The invention enhanced operator performance of manual tasks in remote locations by using two robot controls in an exoskeleton. The first introduction of augmented reality displayed to a live audience was in 1998, when the NFL first displayed a virtual yellow line to represent the line of scrimmage/first down. In 1999, Hirokazu Kato developed the ARToolkit, which was an open source library for the development of AR applications. This allowed people to experiment with AR and release new and improved applications. Later, in 2009 Esquire's magazine was the first to use a QR code on the front of their magazine to provide additional content. Once The Oculus came out in 2012, it revolutionized virtual reality and eventually raised 2.4 million dollars and began releasing their pre-production models to developers. Facebook purchased Oculus for 2 billion dollars in 2014, which showed the world the upward trajectory of VR. In 2013, Google announced their plans to develop their first AR headset, Google Glass. The production stopped in 2015 due to privacy concerns, but relaunched in 2017 exclusively for the enterprise. In 2016, Pokémon Go took the world by storm and became one of the most downloaded apps of all time. It was the first augmented reality game that was accessible through ones phone.