Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Projected reality began with the magic lantern (mid-seventeenth century); its invention is credited to both
Athanasius Kircher and Christiaan Huygens. Étienne-Gaspard Robert (Robertson) and his “phantasmagoria”
(circa 1799) used the magic lantern to great theatrical effect with complex shows involving moving projec-
tors, live voices, and elaborate arrangements of curtain masking and projection screens. In one long-running
show, staged in the crypt of an abandoned Parisian monastery, he succeeded in creating the virtual reality of
a supernatural world in the minds of the audience. As an eyewitness describes: “In fact, many people were so
convinced of the reality of his shows that police temporarily halted the proceedings, believing that Robertson
had the power to bring Louis XVI back to life” [8]. Once the lens and a reliable source of illumination were
worked out, moving images and the cinema were soon to follow.
1.2.3 T
he
B
irTh
of
C
inema
, e
leCTroniC
s
Creens
,
and
The
s
TarT
of
i
mmersiVe
3d d
esign
On December 28, 1895, the Lumière brothers did something that changed our perception of reality again.
In the irst public screening of commercially produced cinema, they showed 10 short ilms at Salon Indien
du Grand Café in Paris [9]. Later that year, one ilm in particular captured the public's imagination:
L'Arrivée
d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat
(“The Arrival of a Train at Ciotat Station”). By setting the camera intention-
ally close to the tracks, they captured a dramatic image of the train as it progressed diagonally across the
screen, from long shot into close-up shot. There were many other creators of motion picture devices at the
time, including Thomas Edison with his kinetoscope (circa 1891), but the Lumière brothers are credited with
being the irst to see the potential for cinema and modern ilmmaking. They went on to develop and establish
many of the ilmmaking techniques and cinematographic methodologies that are still used today.
Many of the modern imaging devices have long histories. The ancient Romans, in their time, created
wonderful mosaics. They also created a conceptual model for the functioning of a computer screen—the
concept of producing an image from many small colored dots, tiles to them, pixels to us.
At some time at the end of the nineteenth century, photographic manipulation began to appear; the Maison
Bonils Company connected four aerial photographs to create a panorama of the city of Beirut, Lebanon.
Another step toward illusionary immersion was made and is now shown in the 360-degree panoramic stereo-
graphic projections stitched together from dozens of images and seen all over the World Wide Web today [10].
1.2.4 C
ompuTer
-C
reaTed
3d s
paCe
and
e
arly
V
irTual
W
orlds
The war years gave virtual reality and the means to create it a big boost. Admiral Luis de Florez (1889-1962),
who fought in both World War I and II, pioneered the use of light simulators to save pilots' lives. Military
usage of virtual reality and training simulations continues to this day and now includes the use of virtual
worlds built on OpenSim platforms and others [11]. In 1962, Morton Heilig built the Sensorama device. It was
described by a witness this way: “The Sensorama was able to display stereoscopic 3D images in a wide-angle
view, provide body tilting, supply stereo sound, and also had tracks for wind and aromas to be triggered during
the ilm” [12]. Shortly afterward, Ivan Sutherland, working with Bob Sproull, developed the irst HMD (head
mounted display) and called it the “Sword of Damocles” because of the great elongated cable and arm hanging
above the head of the wearer. With this device, they opened the door to full-immersion virtual reality [13].
Meanwhile, haptic devices were being developed at the University of North Carolina's Haptics Research
Department; in the late 1960s through the early 1980s, devices like Grope I, II, and III and the Sarcos Arms
were created there. At the AT&T labs, Knowlton's virtual push-button device was built. It projected a virtual
graphic of symbols on a half-silvered screen above the hands of an operator using a keyboard, effectively
combining the virtual with the real [14]. More developments in virtual reality physical feedback (haptic)
interfaces started to happen in the 1980s. The Sayre Data Glove (developed at the University of Illinois with a
