The History of the Metaverse

What's the history of the metaverse.

 

Today the metaverse is used to describe this more immersive Internet,

 

where we use augmented and virtual reality to make this whole experience more immersive,

 

we can project things into our room using augmented reality,

 

where we can walk into environments using our avatars,

 

the thing is that this is not new so I want to look back at some of the key historic milestones that have led to where we are today,

 

it all started back in 1838,

 

when scientist sir charles wheatstone  outlined the concept of binocular vision,

 

where you combine 2 images one for each eye to make a single ThreeD image,

 

and this led to the development of stereoscopes,

 

where you use those two images to create this illusion of depth,

 

the same concept i used today in modern vr headsets,

 

Now we jump to 1935 when american science fiction writer stanley winebone published Pygmalion spectacles in which the main character explores the fictional world using a pair of goggles,

 

so this is when the idea started in 1956 morton heiling created the first vr machine combining a 3d video with audio smells and vibrating chairs to immerse the viewer in a movie,

 

heilig also went on to patent the first head mounted display combining stereoscopic 3d images with stereo sound and this happened.

 

In 1960 between 1960s and 1970s we also saw the first use of augmented reality in the military in the army with headsets for pilots for example.

 

In the 1970s mit created aspen movie map,

 

which is a computer generated tour of the streets of aspen,

 

and this i guess is the first time we could use vr to transport users to another place.

 

In 1982 the term metaverse was first used in neil stevenson's novel snow crash,

 

where it was a place where people went to escape the deery totalitarian reality of the real world they live in.

 

In the early 1990s we saw vr arcade machines like the sega vr1 motion simulators and they were used in lots of arcades.

 

In 1998 sports vision broadcast the first live nfl game with a yellow yacht maker,

 

so the idea of overlaying graphics onto our tv screens which very quickly spread to other sports broadcasting.

 

In 2010 18 year old palmer lucky created the prototype for the oculus rift vr headset,

 

that had a 90 degree field of vision and used computer processing power,

 

which really revolutionized the the headset market and reignited interest in vr.

 

in 2011 we saw the release of the book ready player 1,

 

which then became a movie directed by steven Spielberg,

 

which again gives us this idea of the metaverse being this completely immersive world that we enter to escape from reality.

 

in 2014 facebook then acquired oculus vr for around 2 billion,

 

also in 2014 sony and samsung announced they were creating their own vr headsets,

 

& google released its 1st cardboard device a low-cost cardboard vr viewer,

 

where you stick your phone in and it gives you the vr experience,

 

as well as google glass was released the ar glasses from google.

 

in 2016 microsoft released its hololens headset which gave us mixed reality.

 

so we could create a holographic image in front of us that we could then put into the real world and manipulate,

 

also 2016 saw the release of pokemon go which means everyone was running around with their smartphones trying to find the little pokemons in the real world,

 

and ikea released the place app which was

 

the first innovative way of using augmented reality where you can place furniture into your house and see what it looks like,

 

in 2020 we saw the introduction of lidar in iphones and ipads,

 

which meant it can detect depth much better and augmented reality will become more realistic,

 

in 2021 facebook changed its name to meta which signaled its focus on the metaverse,

 

hdc launched the vive flow which is a a really portable virtual reality headset that looks like sunglasses and ray-ban again in collaboration with facebook or meta created their stories smart glasses,

 

and i believe we'll see more of these immersive interfaces appearing,

 

for example apple is working on headsets that could potentially replace our smartphones as the interface into the metaverse in the future.