What is it?
The idea of Virtual Reality has meant a different reality
that has been created in some way. The
term Virtual itself was a kind of philosophy that meant a reality that was both
ideal and real in some way. Today, we
use the term Virtual to describe anything that originates from technology, or
more specifically, computers. When we
speak about Virtual Reality, we tend to talk about entering, or existing, in a
digital/computer generated environment or scenario, typically through physical
means.
Today, we know Virtual Reality as head sets that you are
able to view and interact with the virtual world through. Modern Virtual Reality is being used mostly
for video games, but other applications such as transportation, medical, and
even defense as well.
VR In Media
Depending on the media, whole civilizations or worlds may
exist virtually, while some enter a virtual space for a short term time and
leave once their jobs are done. Media
often portrayed their Virtual Realities as either the Ideal reality you’d like
to have, or as a modern system in which you have some control over. In the Ideal Reality, you are transported to
a world where it’s the most ideal for you: somewhere you’d like to have
traveled or existed in, or a world that is so different from our own that it
ceases to be anything like ours anymore.
The other example is often used like a prison, where people are kept and
unaware that they are stuck or in there; and if they are aware, then they have
little or no control over the world and are existing through it. There are also media that portrays Virtual
Reality more as Augmented Reality; this is the idea that through special
devices, you can see additional things in your real world setting and interact
with them.
Typically, all Virtual Reality requires you to need to enter
a space where the reality will exist, wear some sort of device to access the
digital world, or be connected to it directly to a machine through a port
installed on the body. A common example
is something like a headset that scans your brain for the actions you want to
take, or connecting directly into your spine.
Example in Media.
Matrix (1999)
Probably the most famous Example of Virtual Reality, the
Matrix itself takes place in a world where humans are no fuel for robots, and
in order to keep humans in line, they are connected to the Matrix. The Matrix itself is modeled on a late 90s,
early 2000s, modern day metropolis, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York,
where humans are completely unaware that they are in any kind of Virtual
Reality. Humans who have been
disconnected from the Matrix, fight to find others who they can disconnect and join
in the resistance against the Machines.
Humans who have been disconnected can return back in to the Matrix, but
can be uploaded with various knowledge packs, allowing them to know various
fighting styles, how to use guns, and just about anything else. Neo(Keanu Reeves) is one such person
disconnected, but later becomes capable of manipulating the Matrix to allow him
to have superior strength, see through things in the Matrix, and even Fly.
Inception (2010)
In Inception, there is a military training device that
allows people to share their dreams. The
dream world can be manipulated to look or become just about anything within the
dreamer’s perception or idea. Once in
the dream, people can interact and travel in to other people’s dreams in order
to steal or gather information about a person, or in Inspection, plant an
idea. The movie shows off the ability to
manipulate reality, and how it can be used to great advantage to create
anything you want, or a great prison in which to get lost in. Leonardo DiCaprio is one such person who have
been trapped in his own dreams before, and knows how to venture in to the dream
to get information.
Ready Player One
In Ready Player One, most people are poor and barely surviving,
much of the world’s resources are gone, but people still have the OASIS (Ontologically
Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation). OASIS is a digital world where players can
upload their creations and use them through the world. The movie, along with the book, play off of
tropes and items from various media sources, like the Delorean from Back to the
Future, a Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam, King Kong from the same series, T-Rex
from Jurassic Park, and even sets from the Shinning. The movie has its hero, Wade Watts,
participating in a treasure hunt for the future ownership of OASIS after its
creator’s death.
Star Trek – The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Discovery, & Picard
By the time of the Next Generation, the 24th century, Star Fleet developed the Holo-Deck, a room that used shields and light to project a Virtual Reality. The notion was that the shields, a type of Force Field, would be projected in a room, and light would then be passed through/around them, creating various objects and spaces. The force fields could mimic heat and cold, texture and shapes, and the light would always seem to bounce off items perfectly. The rooms were usually the size of a small banquet hall, with the intention that multiple people could exist in the space at the time. Virtual people or creatures in a holo-deck are often known as Holograms, who can have very sophisticated AIs. Holograms typically can’t exist outside of the Holodeck without holo-emitters being placed in the surrounding space.
In Discovery, they seem to have either early version of holo-decks being used, but not common in the rest of Star Fleet. By the of Picard, they no longer need to be in rooms, and can instead have holo-emitters placed in an area to generate the holograms.
Holo-decks were often used as a means of changing up the scenery or locations in Star Trek. This allowed writers to write in historical characters or settings, or play on various notions or locations that wouldn’t be common in space. Famously, Voyager’s Doctor was a hologram that expanded his abilities/roles over time, showing the sophistication of the AI technology and programming. Many of his stories grappled with if a Hologram could be considered a person, or his limitations as a Hologram.
90s Cartoons
VR Troopers
Adapted from various Tokusatsu series: Metal Hero Series:
Superhuman Machine Metalder, Dimensional Warrior Spielban and Space Sheriff
Shaider. The series tells of three
humans who are protecting the real world from enemies in a ‘Virtual Reality’ by
transforming in to masked heroes. The
series is uses footage from various Metal Hero Series, and none of the series
actually line up with any of them.
Super Human Samurai Syber Squad
Adapted from Tokusatsu series Denkou Choujin Gridman, or
Gridman the Hyper Agent, was DIC Production’s attempt to cash in on the Power
Ranger’s fad of the 90s. The show’s
action took place in a Digital World, where our Hero would transform in to
Gridman/Servo and fight evil monsters that were really computer viruses.
Japanese Animation:
Ghost in a Shell (1995)
Perhaps one of the First anime to visit Virtual and
Augmented reality, as well as a more definitive Cyberpunk setting. It tells of a future where cyberization, the
act of becoming a cyborg or gaining machine parts, is common place. It shows how virtual worlds can be created
within people and settings, and even how the world has been augmented with
Virtual advertisements, signs, and even projections that can confuse the
brain. It’s a series the goes on to ask
what is real at the end of the day?
Later series play with the notion of Virtual Reality and hacking more
so. The series follows Major Motoko
Kusanagi and Section 9, a task force for the Japanese Government, assigned with
difficult missions that require utmost secrecy and security.
.hack//Sign (2002)
Read as ‘Dot, Hack, Sign’, the series started as an Anime,
intending on promoting a Video Game series where you play a fictional MMORPG
in, and started a franchise. The story
tells that in 2009, a virus known as Pluto’s Kiss destroyed any computer
connected to it, wrecking just about every electronic connected to it. Two years later, access to the network
recovers, and the first game to come out for it is ‘The World’, an MMORPG with
a fantasy Setting. Players log in to the
world via head sets and interact with other people in this digital world,
however mysterious things are happening, that cause players to go in to Commas
after playing the game. One such person,
Tsukasa, is trapped in the game via one of these mysterious happenings, and
eventually gets out. They are eventually
able to get out, only for other people to go in to Commas later on due to
events.
Sword Art Online (2012)
Likely the more popular version of Virtual Reality, the
first of its kind Virtual MMO is being released to only 100,000 people lucky
enough to buy it. Upon first logging on,
player discover that they can’t log out of the game, and are then told by the
game’s creator that they are trapped in this Virtual MMO until they can reach
the final boss of the game on the 100th floor, and if they die in
the game, they die in real life due to the head set over clocking. The initial players are stuck for 2 years in
the game, until they eventually get free, and continue going back in to various
Virtual Worlds of different settings and genre.
This anime shows the more common idea of what Virtual Reality is capable
of, as a gateway to fantasy worlds and new games to play. It’s popularity spawned a number of sequels
and copy cat anime, manga, and novels, which all seem to play on the theme of
people being getting lost in their virtual world.
VR HeadSets
One of the First VR Headsets was ‘The Sword of Damocles’
which only projected a wire-frame square upon the world. It was the first in the late 60s, and was so
heavy, it had to be suspended from the ceiling.
While rudimentary, it started the Idea of this kind of technology being
the future.
By the 90s, various companies were trying to get the full
Virtual Reality set up working, with Full body suits and chambers designed to
give you the full immersion feeling of being in Virtual Reality. Sega was amongst the first to really create
Virtual Reality Gaming, with Arcade Cabinets that featured headsets that
tracked your vision and sign. While many
companies tried to get it to take off, there was also a fair amount of failure,
leading to many companies discontinuing the study in to VR.
By the 2000s, Virtual Reality was a fad and not common
study, with few companies really looking in to it. It wasn’t until 2010 when early versions of
the Oculus Rift being developed that offered 90-degree field of vision that VR
started to become more interesting. In
2012, Facebook would go on to buy Oculus VR for around $3 Billion. By 2013, Valve had joined in the development,
developing lag-free software to make VR content more possible. A year later, they joined the market with the
HTC Vive.
By 2016, over 230 companies, from Apple, Amazon, Google,
Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Facebook, and more has developed AR or VR groups,
developing new technology for the immerging market.
