A Report on the presentation by W.Industries.

© Chris Hand, 1991

THE HISTORY OF VIRTUAL REALITY

Mr Rowley then went on to discuss some of the history of VR, and his experiences with simulation technology. He lead us from the early experiments with stereo film, wide-angle screens, 3D glasses (and associated headaches - literally) to the development of Flight Simulators, in which he played a part during his work at Marconi Radar Systems Ltd, England.

A range of visual simulation techniques were described, from using film and anamorphic lenses to the use of a video camera suspended over a model landscape. This latter approach was very expensive to make, and had its problems in the fact that when the camera moved nearer to the model the end-user's image became out of focus, whereas in reality closer proximity results in greater clarity. Other problems with depth of field and the model landscapes melting under strong lights or being gouged out by mis-navigated cameras meant that this approach was costly and inconvenient.

Simulation techniques benefitted from the advent of computer generated images, although in the earlier days these were of low resolution. Mr Rowley showed slides of early military trainers that compromised by providing simple silhouettes of aircraft rather than attempting to display detailed images. When increased computer power arrived in the 1970's and 80's, colour, shading and texture became possible in real time. In the 70's a simulation system developed by Marconi (in Leicester) was capable of rendering 5000 textured polygons/s in real time at a rate of 50Hz. A video clip taken directly from such a system showed a harrier jet performing vertical take-off, before disappearing smoothly into the distance. Such a system cost between £2million and £20million. Mr Rowley pointed out that although these simulations were only available to a few, it was during this time that much of the groundwork was laid down and techniques developed that would be used later

 Moving on to more recent times, we were told how such devices as the TMS 34010/20 40Mflops graphics co-processor can be used to create images at high speed, and how LCD colour screens can be used for head-mounted displays (for example VPL eyephones and W Industries headset). Since such devices were capable of being mass-produced, the result can be a large saving in the potential cost of realistic simulation systems.