When actual VR took root in our minds as an all-encompassing simulacrum is a little fuzzier. As with most technological breakthroughs, the vision likely began with science fiction—specifically Stanley G. Weinbaum’s 1935 short story “Pygmalion’s Spectacles,” in which a scientist devises a pair of glasses that can “make it so that you are in the story, you speak to the shadows, and the shadows reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it.”
Anatomy of a Headset
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What does IMU mean?
Inertial measurement unit, the accelerometer/gyroscope combo that allows a headset to track a user’s head movements. -
What are degrees of freedom?
Your power of in-VR movement. Mobile headsets like the Google Daydream View or Gear VR can only track your head along the three rotational axes. That lets you look freely around a space, but it doesn’t let you move. For the full six degrees of freedom, or “6DOF,” you need either external sensors that track your headset in space via infrared (as with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive) or a headset with outward-facing visual sensors that allow it to extrapolate its own position. -
What’s latency?
The time it takes for your head movement to be reflected by the headset’s display: If you turn your head quickly, how long does it take for your perspective to change in accordance? High latency (upwards of 20 milliseconds or so) is the foremost cause of simulator sickness in VR. Lower latency is what you want. -
What’s VR presence?
The phenomenon that occurs when VR is good enough to trick your senses into believing that you are really experiencing the thing you’re virtually experiencing, and your body responds in kind. Have you ever stood on a ledge or a high building in VR and refused to step off, even though your rational brain knew you’d just find more carpet? That’s because of presence. -
What is the screen door effect?
No matter how good a display’s resolution, having it 2 inches in front of your eyes means you’re gonna see
