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History of Virtual Reality
History of Virtual Reality
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Virtual Reality
Being one of the new up and coming technologies of today, we hear about virtual reality all over but sometimes don’t even know what the term really means. Virtual reality is “a technology that allows the user to go beyond the computer screen and enter a three-dimensional, computer-generated world (Virtual Reality Resources).” In other words, virtual reality is the users interacting with the computer and actually becoming a part of what is happening in the imaginary world, bringing it to life. It is actually a simulation of some aspect of the real world that is basically interactive (Tate).
Taking a look at the history of virtual reality it actually began in the late 1950’s with the first supercomputers (Mitchell). The whole concept of virtual reality began with the realization that computer screen could be used instead of paper to view output (An explanation). At first, however, many people thought the computers as nothing more than adding machines. As virtual reality began to develop many individuals played a role in it. Three important men were Douglas Engelbart, Ivan Sutherland, and Myron Krueger. The contributions of these men were critical to the development of early virtual reality.
Douglas Engelbart, who was an electrical engineer and former naval radar technician, saw computers as more than number crunchers. “He knew from his days as a radar technician that screens could be used to display digital data, and therefore assumed it was possible to use a screen to display output from a computer (Mitchell).” It was a good ten years before Engelbart had the resources to build the devices that he had been thinking of for so long. Then invention that he knew would change the way computer w...
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...or in the future and wonder exactly how far it will go.
Bibliography
Tate, Scott. Virtual Reality: A Historical Perspective. Internet. http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Tate.VR.html. 2/25/01.
Mitchell, Keith. Virtual Reality. Internet. http://ei.cs.vt.edu/edu/~history/mitchell.VR.html. 2/25/01.
History of Virtual Reality. Internet. http://134.154.105.18/mm610198/antfarm/his.html. 2/25/01.
An explanation, The history, The applications, and the future of Virtual Reality. Internet. http://www.doane.edu/personal/student/jmchargu/final.htm. 2/25/01.
MediaMorphosis of Virtual Reality. Internet. http://134.154.105.18/mm610198/antfarm.mm.html. 2/25/01.
Virtual Reality Resources. Internet. http://ils.unc.edu/houseman/overview.html. 2/25/01.
The History of Virtual Reality. Internet. http://www.att.virtualclassroom.org. 2/25/01.
Meursault is a fairly average individual who is distinctive more in his apathy and passive pessimism than in anything else. He rarely talks because he generally has nothing to say, and he does what is requested of him because he feels that resisting commands is more of a bother than it is worth. Meursault never did anything notable or distinctive in his life: a fact which makes the events of the book all the more intriguing.
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For instance, Meursault develops the theme of absurdity in two different contexts namely figurative and literal level. On the symbolic level, he is concerned to death after being found guilty. This is a portrayal of the human condition who have to face the consequences after committing a crime more so, a capital offense like murder. On the other hand, literally of the action is seen when he describes the character of a revolt, freedom, and passion. Meursault is not moved by the expectations of the society and does what he feels is best for him. In many cases throughout the novel, he refused to abide by the customs of the society and instead resorted to smoking. Other things he did against the society expectations includes showing indifference during the vigil of his mother, going to the beach with Marie, and spending time with her immediately after his mother was buried as well as writing a letter for his friend, Raymond. His ability to exercise what he believes in and his freedom make it difficult for the society to impose on him some restrictions on his life. He is constant pursuance of pleasure and experiences makes it difficult for him to conform to the norms and values of the
While little evolution of character occurs with Meursault, subtle differences are seen when comparing him in the beginning and end of the Camus’ novel. The extent of Meursault’s madness were surprisingly noticeable in the beginning. By the end however, his so called “madness” was demoted to more of an accepted philosophy of understanding, neither moral nor immoral. Meursault was an extremely passive, despondent and disconnected nihilist. From early on, it became understood that Meursault did not conform to the popular pressures of Christianity being experienced in 1940 Algerian society. In fact, Meursault believed life had no true purpose and that there was no God in heaven. This alone did not describe the...
When World War II broke out in 1939 the United States was severely technologically disabled. There existed almost nothing in the way of mathematical innovations that had been integrated into military use. Therefore, the government placed great emphasis on the development of electronic technology that could be used in battle. Although it began as a simple computer that would aid the army in computing firing tables for artillery, what eventually was the result was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). Before the ENIAC it took over 20 hours for a skilled mathematician to complete a single computation for a firing situation. When the ENIAC was completed and unveiled to the public on Valentine’s Day in 1946 it could complete such a complex problem in 30 seconds. The ENIAC was used quite often by the military but never contributed any spectacular or necessary data. The main significance of the ENIAC was that it was an incredible achievement in the field of computer science and can be considered the first digital and per...
A history of the beginning of the year augmented reality 1957-1962, when an inventor named Morton Heilig, a cinematographer, created and patented a simulator called Sensorama with visual, vibration and odor. In Virtual Reality technology, users interact with the virtual environment created for simulating the real world, but the user can not see the real world around him. In the augmented reality technology, the user can see the real world around him with the addition of a virtual object generated by a computer. Augmented reality 3D objects that appear directly in the media, it would require a special tool called a Head Mounted Display
The term Virtual Reality (VR) is used by many different people with many meanings. There are some people to whom VR is a specific collection of technologies, that is a Head Mounted Display, Glove Input Device and Audio. Some other people stretch the term to include conventional books, movies or pure fantasy and imagination. However, for purposes of this research, we restrict VR to computer mediated systems. We would define Virtual Reality as a way for humans to visualize, manipulate and interact with computers and extremely complex data.
Non-profit organizations do not belong to the commercial sector or the public sector, but occupy an intermediate position. It gives them greater flexibility in their work, but requires from manager’s considerable skills and experience in their management.
Virtual and digital technologies are rampant in American culture and thoroughly utilized in entertainment mediums like television, movies, magazines, and video games. Our capitalist economy creates a fertile environment for these mediums to prosper by feeding off the public's hunger for entertainment. Because these industries are in such high demand and accrue billion dollar revenues, new technologies are often conceived in and funded by these trades: "For, in essence, all socially relevant new image media, from classical antiquity to the revolution of digital images, have advanced to serve the interests of maintaining power and control or maximizing profits" (Grau 339). That being the case, new technologies "hardly ever…advanced solely for artistic purposes" (Grau 339). Because "power" and "profits" are the central means of motivation in our culture; art, in the classical sense, is often an afterthought. In an age where entertainment and art intertwine, however, distinctions between the two based upon their creation are impossible. With advances in technology and, in turn, art, our ideas and traditions of comparison should also develop to justly analyze new media: "Although art history and the history of the media have always stood in an interdependent relationship and art has commented on, taken up, or even promoted each new media development, the view of art history as media history…is still underdeveloped" (Grau 4). In order to embrace virtual art as a valid outlet of artistic expression, its relationship to media and unique position in the history of art must first be acknowledged.
Role-playing games are becoming increasingly popular in this age due the assistance of the Internet. In these types of game a person can assume a character and give this character a personality, physical features and “live” through them. All though in past years “pen and paper” types have dominated the rpg world, now MUDs are making it possible to role-play along with thousands of others A MUD is a network-accessible, multi-participant virtual reality that is primarily text-based. (Bruckman, 1992). Although the term “virtual reality” often refers to a computer-simulated environment that contains varying degrees of audio/visual interface, this form of virtual reality is mainly text-based. Elizabeth Reid further explains by saying:
A non-profit organization is a company form with intentions other than earning a profit. Usually, non-profit organizations include hospitals, schools, churches, political organizations, public clinics, labor unions, volunteer organizations, museums, research institutes, professional associations and legal aid societies. Most non-profit organizations enjoy tax exemption from the federal government if they exist for the purpose of charity, religion, public safety, science, education, literacy, the development of sports or the prevention of cruelty to animals
Although still in its, infancy, virtual reality will have a substantial effect on our future way of life. Virtual reality already has made astounding progress in the world of commercial design, and it is predicted to have a tremendous impact on everyday life as well. Virtual reality, when more available, will have various uses ranging from recreation to basic communication. The applications of virtual reality into different fields of occupations and research will have both positive and negative effects on our society.
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The Whirlwind computer had a video display that was controlled interactively by a light gun. The display attracted users much more than computer code. The Whirlwind computer became the basis for SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), a defense command-and-control system developed for the Air force. In the 1960s Ivan Sutherland’s MIT doctoral thesis introduced a Sketchpad interactive drawing system, which established the theoretical groundwork for computer graphics software (Machover 14). In the mid-1960s, computer graphics was booming in private industry. General Motors had released DAC-1 a computer-aided design system, and Itek developed the Digigraphics electronic drafting machine. By the late 1960s the first storage-tube display terminals appeared, shortly followed by direct-view storage tube display terminals (DVST) which cost thousands of dollars; however this was an improvement to the tens to hundreds of thousands spent initially for display systems. In the 1970s Turnkey systems emerged, beforehand users had to develop software to make their hardware work however turnkey systems provided a haven to users from software issues. Bit-mapped raster displays developed as memory...
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.