Why Virtual Reality Has Not (Yet) Become a Widespread Technology with Jaron Lanier, BayCHI Program
Channel: BayCHI, San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI
Date: 2024-01-10

September 9, 2003

https://baychi.org/calendar/20030909

New Coke. Laser Discs. The Apple Newton. Virtual Reality. Ah, the '80s. Unlike the first three, Virtual Reality didn't die out and later come back to life in the form of Classic Coke, DVDs, or PDAs. So what has kept Virtual Reality (VR) from fulfilling its potential?

Well, who better to answer that question than the person who coined the term "virtual reality" back in the '80s and has been at the forefront of VR ever since, Jaron Lanier.

Lanier's credentials aside—he has been at the forefront of VR for fifteen years and has managed to hold posts at Dartmouth, U Penn, and Columbia, all without any academic degrees—Lanier is a first-rate speaker, engaging his audience with a low-key blend of content and humor. And he says some quotable stuff, too.

So, here's the skinny. VR isn't what Hollywood wanted it to be—see Keanu Reeves as stud in The Matrix and dud in Johnny Mnemonic—nor what the media thought it would be. Instead, VR first took shape with Ivan Sutherland, creator of Sketchpad, and the dissertation project that first demonstrated computer graphics, visual programming, and a user interface.