How a Parachute Accident Helped Jump-Start Augmented Reality: In 1992, Hardware for the First Interactive AR System Literally Fell from the Skies
Louis B. Rosenberg · IEEE Spectrum · 2022
I climb into an upper-body exoskeleton that's covered in sensors, motors, gears, and bearings, and then lean forward, tilting my head up to press my face against the eyepieces of a vision system hanging from the ceiling. In front of me, I see a large wooden board, painted black and punctuated by a grid of metal holes. The board is real. So is the peg in my hand that I'm trying to move from one hole to another, as fast as I can. When I begin to move the peg, a virtual cone appears over the target hole, along with a virtual surface easing toward it. I can feel the surface as I slide the peg along it toward the cone and into the hole.