Third Dimension Knowledge: The Father Of Virtual Reality

Morton Heilig (December 22, 1926 – May 14, 1997)

Morton Heilig, The Father Of Virtual Reality in many books and articles. He was one of the great visionaries of our time, he was a Philosopher, Inventor, Filmmaker and in general a man who looked towards the future and was way ahead of his time.

In 1956, Morton Heilig began designing the first multisensory virtual experiences. Resembling one of today's arcade machines, the Sensorama combined projected film, audio, vibration, wind, and odors, all designed to make the user feel as if he were actually in the film rather than simply watching it. Patented in 1961, the Sensorama placed the viewer in a one person theater and, for a quarter, the viewer could experience one of five two-minute 3D full color films with ancillary sensations of motion, sound, wind in the face and smells. The five "experiences" included a motorcycle ride through New York, a bicycle ride, a ride on a dune buggy, a helicopter ride over Century city in 1960 and a dance by a belly dancer. Since real-time computer graphics were many years away, the entire experience was prerecorded, and played back for the user.

Heilig also patented an idea for a device that some consider the first Head-Mounted Display (HMD). He first proposed the idea in 1960 and applied for a patent in 1962. It used wide field of view optics to view 3D photographic slides, and had stereo sound and an "odor generator". He later proposed an idea for an immersive theater that would permit the projection of three dimensional images without requiring the viewer to wear special glasses or other devices. The audience would be seated in tiers and the seats would be connected with the film track to provide not only stereographic sound, but also the sensation of motion. Smells would be created by injecting various odors into the air conditioning system. Unfortunately, Heilig's "full experience" theater was never built.

Sensorama

Heilig's Sensorama

The syn-aesthetic, immersive machine developed by Heilig in 1962 widened the Expanded Cinema to a theater of total illusion, which Heilig called the EXPERIENCE THEATER.

Built inside a booth, in which visitors could sit on a movable stool, Heilig imagined that, for the price of 25 cents, Sensorama would offer multi-sensorial impressions of a virtual, ten-minute-long motorcycle ride through New York City.

Apart from seeing the film, the Sensorama user would simultaneously experience the corresponding vibrations, head movements, sounds, and rushes of wind. But Heilig was unable to commercialize his visionary prototype for a cinema of the future.

In a later interview he stated: The Sensorama may have been too revolutionary for its time. He patented his invention as the Experience Theater with 3–D images in 1969, and in 1971 the Sensorama Simulator for creating the illusion of reality.

Here I have uploaded some more Images.