Virtual reality is something that has always fascinated us since it’s conception in the early twentieth century. It’s origins date back to 1935 with American science fiction writer Stanley Weinbaum who wrote a short story titled Pygmalion’s Spectacles. In the story, the main character meets a professor who invented a pair of goggles which enabled “a movie that gives one sight and sound, taste, smell, and touch. You are in the story, you speak to the shadows (characters) and they reply. the story is all about you, and you are in it.”
However it wasn’t till 1956 when Cinematographer Morton Heilig created Sensorama, the first VR machine that we finally saw a real attempt towards the creation of a virtual reality space. The Sensorama machine was designed to stimulate all senses and included a vibrating chair, a stereoscopic 3D screen, scent producers, fans for atmospheric conditions like wind, and stereoscopic speakers. Morton Heilig thought that this would be the future of cinema starting that the Sensorama was “the cinema of the future.” There were six short films created for the device.
Morton Heilig also had developed the Telesphere mask in 1960 which was the first head mounted VR system that displayed stereoscopic 3D images and included sound as well. There was no motion tracking available in the headset however.
Then later in 1985 Jaron Lanier and Thomas Zimmerman founded VPL Research, Inc. The company went on to develop the first commercially available headset and gloves along with other equipment which included the data glove, eyephone, and audio sphere.
Once the 90’s hit video game companies saw the potential in a virtual reality centered gaming experience. SEGA making the SEGA VR-1, a motion simulator arcade machine, and Nintendo creating the Virtual Boy which was famous for its failure and ability to cause headaches and migraines.
A defining moment in the development of VR was the Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift which generated $2.4 million dollars in the year 2012. This interest led to Facebook purchasing the company for $2 billion in 2014 and thus began an era of widespread VR development between companies like Sony, Google, Samsung, and hundreds of others.
What’s next? Well the possibilities are being broadened by the potential of VR. For Graphic designers this means that there will be more opportunities to work in three dimensional spaces which is exciting given the occupations historically two dimensional visuals and processes. Likely we will see opportunity in the realms of UX/UI design as more and more spaces enter virtual reality. One project simply called Singularity is a visualization of how graphic design can be further pushed within the medium or world of virtual reality. Created by Madrid-based design studio Relajaelcoco for the Oculus Rift and Gear VR. It’s the first of its kind to explore the potential of VR in graphic design. Francesco Furno, co-founder of Relajaelcoco, came up with the idea for Singularity after noticing how current VR games often miss the 2D element of graphic design. The Singularity experiment shows how designs for VR don’t necessarily have to be modeled on the gaming world, but can take stylistic cues from the graphic design world instead. Who knows how readily available VR technology will be within the next five to ten years, but the tech will have a profound impact on the occupation if Virtual Reality proves not to just be a trend.
