Over the past decades, Virtual Reality has gone from a futuristic concept to a widespread technology used in gaming, education and medicine. But how has this technology evolved? Who invented virtual reality? Let’s retrace its history, from the first experiments to modern immersive visors.

The Origins: Sensorama and the Sword of Damocles

The first ideas of virtual reality date back to the 1950s, when Morton Heilig developed the Sensorama, a device that combined stereoscopic images, sounds, vibrations and even smells to create a multi-sensory experience. Although it was not interactive, Sensorama was one of the first attempts to simulate an alternative reality. Heilig imagined a future in which cinema would involve all of the spectator’s senses, making the experience more immersive. However, the technology of the time did not allow this idea to fully develop.

In the 1960s, Ivan Sutherland introduced the first true virtual reality viewer: the Sword of Damocles. This device, suspended from the ceiling due to its weight, offered a primitive immersive experience through computer graphics, paving the way for future developments in the field of VR. The Sword of Damocles was equipped with a head-tracking system that allowed the user to explore a three-dimensional virtual space in real-time. Although the resolution was extremely low and the experience was rather rudimentary, the idea of an alternative reality that could be explored interactively was beginning to take shape.

Sutherland also developed the Head-Mounted Display (HMD), which represented a further step forward in the creation of immersive environments. Although primitive by today’s standards, this device allowed users to view computer-generated three-dimensional images, anticipating the technologies that would become the core of modern VR.

Jaron Lanier and the Birth of Modern VR

In the 1980s, the term Virtual Reality became popular thanks to Jaron Lanier, founder of VPL Research. His company developed some of the first commercial XR glasses and hand-tracking gloves, marking a turning point in the interaction with virtual environments. Lanier was a visionary who realised the potential of VR long before the technology was able to support it adequately.

VPL devices, such as the DataGlove and EyePhone, allow users to manipulate virtual objects with their hands and immerse themselves in digital environments. These early experiments greatly influenced the design of future interfaces.

This era also saw the growing interest of large technology companies, with experiments in the military, medical and entertainment sectors. However, hardware limitations and high costs held back the large-scale deployment of VR. In particular, latency and rendering problems prevented a truly fluid and immersive experience. Moreover, the prohibitive cost of the devices made it difficult to disseminate them to the general public.

Placeholder and Osmose: The New Frontiers of Artistic VR

In the 1990s, in addition to technical developments, VR began to be explored as an artistic and experiential medium. A key example was Placeholder (1993), a project by Brenda Laurel and Rachel Strickland. It used interactive virtual environments to experiment with new forms of storytelling and user involvement. The idea was to create an immersive experience that went beyond visual simulation, introducing concepts of agency and presence.

Another significant contribution came from Char Davies’s Osmose project (1994/95), which redefined VR as a meditative experience rather than an interactive one in the traditional sense. Osmose used an interface based on breathing and body movement to immerse users in an ethereal and surreal virtual environment, exploring the idea of sensory perception and presence in the virtual environment.

These artistic experiments helped expand the conception of VR, demonstrating that it was not just a tool for gaming or simulation, but could also become an expressive and philosophical medium.

The Boom of VR

From the 1990s to the early 2000s, companies such as Sega and Nintendo tried to introduce VR devices to the general public, but without much success. Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, for instance, suffered from technical and comfort problems, proving that the technology was not yet ready for mass adoption. Despite these failures, research and development continued. In the military, VR was used for training simulation, while in the medical sector, the first applications for rehabilitation and assisted surgery began.

The real turning point came in the 2010s with the launch of Oculus Rift, a project born on Kickstarter and later acquired by Facebook. Since then, VR has started to expand rapidly, with the release of devices such as the HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, and, more recently, headsets such as Oculus Quest. These devices introduced more advanced technologies, such as inside-out tracking, reduced latency and integration of advanced sensors, significantly improving the user experience.

Virtual Reality Today and Tomorrow

Today, VR is used not only for gaming but also for training, medical rehabilitation and remote collaboration. Companies continue to innovate, developing increasingly lightweight, high-resolution and advanced motion-tracking visors.

If you want to learn more about the differences between Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, read our dedicated article: Beyond Reality: VR, AR, MR and XR!

Always attentive to innovations in the world of immersive technology, we at CHRONES. continue to explore the future of VR and its applications in a wide variety of fields. Discover all the declinations of our VR platform: team building simulations and edutainment for museums and cultural institutions!

Photo of Sensorama by Morton Heilig