3 A Brief History of VR
Introduction
If you look back through history and document reactions to newly emergent technologies, you will see a predictable pattern: there were some who saw the new invention for all its promising capabilities while others insisted that it posed extraordinary dangers.
Naysayers said that the first electrified subway system was an underground death trap. “People were not made to travel underground!” it was said. But then, when people finally rode on the subways, they found that it was actually quite a nice experience.
Motion picture films, in their first decades as an entertainment medium, were believed to cause juvenile delinquency and depraved behavior based on the imitative behavior theory. For example, in 1913, “After [a censor] banned some films of people dancing (the turkey trot and the tango), he said that ‘the objection is not based so much upon these pictures in themselves, but upon the effect they would have on thousands of young people.'” (Denby, 2016). Communities all over the country mandated censorship despite arguments about Free Speech. This practice dissolved through a combination of legal decisions and changes in social standards that were less paternalistic.
In the 1950s, comic books were targeted as a corrupting influence on young people. Piles of comic books were burned, fostered by the belief that “…Hitler was a beginner compared to the [influence of the] comic-book industry.” (Werther, F., 1954).
In this chapter, we examine the promise (and outrage) held in one of the newest media technologies to become accessible to the general public: Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Realities (AR/VR/MR), collectively referred to as reality technologies.
The readings and media in this chapter touch upon the basic capabilities of reality technologies and then go beyond the “wow factors” to explore their potentially negative collateral effects and promising deliverables.
Key Terms
As a relatively new and evolving field of study, the terminologies used to describe AR/VR/MR are often changing. The following definitions provide basic descriptions, though there may be additional nuances to them under certain conditions.
360 Degree Video (360)– video which is viewable with a headset or other device in which the user can determine the angle of viewing but cannot interact with the scene beyond passive observation. Example: Journey to the Edge of Space
Augmented Reality (AR) – .”..taking digital or computer generated information, whether it be images, audio video and touch or haptic sensations and overlaying them [onto] … a real-time environment” (Kipper, G., 2012, p.18). Example: Pokemon Go
Virtual Reality (VR) – “A completely artificial digital environment that uses computer hardware and software to create the appearance of a real environment to the user” (Kipper, G., 2012, p. 22). Example: Beat Saber
Mixed Reality (MR) – .”..where real world objects or people are dynamically integrated into virtual worlds to produce new e