Wired
Google Glass? Oculus Rift? Those are old ideas.
Academics and tech outfits have explored similar concepts for decades. The ideas behind the Oculus virtual reality headset date to the early 1980s. By the early aughts, Dyson—yes, the vacuum-maker—was tinkering with something quite like Google Glass. And around the same time, IBM was working on all sorts of computer headwear, actively trying to create a world in which we could trade emails, edit documents, and even communicate in real-time through tiny, voice-activated, image-recognizing machines attached to our noggins.
In the late ’90s, IBM’s research arm developed something dubbed “the Wearable,” a portable machine with a 1.5-inch etched glass display. Only one was built, and it was so delicate, it had to be handled with gloves. In 1997, the tech giant commissioned a futuristic short film that showcased the gizmo—and its much bigger, clunkier predecessors (see video above). Some of them look an awful lot like the Rift.
Read more (with video)
Google Glass? Oculus Rift? Those are old ideas.
Academics and tech outfits have explored similar concepts for decades. The ideas behind the Oculus virtual reality headset date to the early 1980s. By the early aughts, Dyson—yes, the vacuum-maker—was tinkering with something quite like Google Glass. And around the same time, IBM was working on all sorts of computer headwear, actively trying to create a world in which we could trade emails, edit documents, and even communicate in real-time through tiny, voice-activated, image-recognizing machines attached to our noggins.
In the late ’90s, IBM’s research arm developed something dubbed “the Wearable,” a portable machine with a 1.5-inch etched glass display. Only one was built, and it was so delicate, it had to be handled with gloves. In 1997, the tech giant commissioned a futuristic short film that showcased the gizmo—and its much bigger, clunkier predecessors (see video above). Some of them look an awful lot like the Rift.
Read more (with video)
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