In the early 1970's Tom Furness began work on a virtual cockpit for the Air Force. Around the same time Ted Brooks, started customizing a radioisotope manipulator for use with virtual objects, at the University of North Carolina. In the mid 70's, users could now feel a graphical representation of a child's block through the glove in the manipulator and they could even pick up the virtual block. This technology could be used for many space-based operations, such as driving a bulldozer on the Moon by remote control or using it as a training device. There are numerous applications in the domains of health care, education and lifelong learning, manufacturing, and other areas where this technology shows great promise for improving productivity.
Early results show an increase in productivity and a reduction in cost and resources.
In order to keep pace with real-time interaction, virtual reality technology must be supported by high performance computers, the associated software and high bandwidth network capabilities. Interactive Imaging Systems Virtus Corporation Virtual Reality, 3D systems for computer graphics and video applications.