About: When virtual reality was still at the “ground floor” level, one of its basic components, 3D computer graphics was already in wide commercial use and expanding. By 1990,”virtual” exploration of artificial environments was being demonstrated routinely at NASA Ames and elsewhere. Since the mid-1980’s, Ames’ Aerospace Human Factors Research Division has been developing systems that permit human/computer interaction. The Virtual Interface Environment Workstation (VIEW) is a head-mounted stereoscopic display system in which the display may be an artificial computer-generated environment or a real environment relayed from remote video cameras. Operator can “step into” this environment and interact with it. The DataGlove has a series of fiber optic cables and sensors that detect any movement of the wearer’s fingers and transmit the information to a host computer; a computer generated image of the hand will move exactly as the operator is moving his gloved hand. With appropriate software, the operator can use the glove to interact with the computer scene by grasping an object.
NASA VIEW HMD Specs and Info…
Device: NASA VIEW HMD
Manufacturer: NASA, VPL Research
Announced Date: November 1988
Release Date: Never Released
Launch Price: Unknown
Device Type: VR Headset (PC Powered)
Display: 6.9 cm LCD Screens at 240 X 120 (Per Eye)
Diagonal Field of View(FOV): 100°
Refresh Rate: 30 Hz
Weight: 1670 g (3.68 lb)
CPU: N/A
GPU: N/A
Battery: N/A
Tracking: 3 DoF Non-positional (Gyroscope Based)
Controllers: DataGlove
Our Thoughts: It’s March 1988 and NASA are trying to find new ways to justify their budget and so come up with experiments on astronauts using HMD’s. Things like would they work in space, would it make them ill, things like that. What you might find a little odd is that this system dubbed “Virtual Interface Environment Workstation Project (VIEWlab)” was made in 1988! This retro-looking system really shows what a leap forward headsets like Oculus Rift really are, one giant leap for tech-kind!
While the headset itself might not be amazing with regards to today’s technology it does make you wonder if we owe a little bit of thanks to the work the people of NASA did back then. All this data and research that was made public had to have influenced someone. Maybe that someone works at Oculus!
Sources used…
- https://www.nasa.gov/ames/spinoff/new_continent_of_ideas/