Virtual reality, (believe it or not) has been around a good 80 years! The exact origins of virtual reality are disputed, because of how difficult it has been to formulate a definition for the concept of an alternative existence.
Features of virtual reality appeared as early as the 1860s. French playwright Antonin Artaud took the view that illusion was not distinct from reality, advocating that spectators at a play should suspend disbelief and regard the drama on stage as reality.
This is the sensorama, it was developed a prototype was produced in the 1950s by a man called Morton Heilig. Because it was developed before digital computing, the Sensorama was a mechanical device. The very same person also developed what he referred to as the “Telesphere Mask” in 1960. He described the device as “a telescopic television apparatus for individual use. The spectator is given a complete sensation of reality for example, moving 3D images which may be in colour, with 100% peripheral vision, binaural sound, scents and air breezes”. The only real difference between VR back then and now is that the VR developed back then was an independent system, whilst VR in modern tines require another system to supply it with video and sounds, making the device much more universal. Augmented reality also falls into the same sort of technological group as VR. In recent years AR has been popularised by games such as pokemon go and even apps such as snapchat, as they have the face filters. Most AR programmes heavily rely on a portable device and a camera, making smartphone a great device to use these programmes on.
