American author and inventor Hugo Gernsback is said to have created the
first entertainment eyewear device - the closest predecessor to current VR
goggles
At the moment, the world is going gaga over virtual reality,
allowing us to completely immerse ourselves in a technology which creates a
simulated environment -You could visit The Taj Mahal right from your hall room.
Even though concepts like Google Cardboard, Samsung GearVR and others have been
going mainstream and commercial over the past few years, a man named Hugo
Gernsback might have invented virtual reality glasses around half a century too
soon! Hugo Gernsback is the gentleman responsible for coining the term,
‘science fiction'. He created the imaginative fiction magazine Amazing Stories
in 1926, which later on was made into a TV series by Steven Spielberg. The Hugo
Awards for science fiction and fantasy are named after him as well.
Among these things, he was known to be an inventor with some
crazy ideas. Some of them include, combined electric hair brush and comb, a
battery-powered handheld illuminated mirror, and a wax-impregnated fabric strip
for removing excess hair. But, his most interesting invention was the
teleyeglasses -a pocket-sized, battery-operated portable TV with a separate
screen for each eye, which are similar to the 3D glasses we have today.
These glasses were built around small cathode-ray tubes that
ran on low-voltage current from tiny batteries. Weighing about 140 grams, it
could display stereoscopic images. They had a V-type antenna protruding from
the teleyeglasses, which were described as ‘neo-Martian'.
In July 1963, when Hugo Gernsback was 78 years old, Life
Magazine described his television eyeglasses as, “He now invents only in broad
outline, leaving the actual mechanics of the thing to others. His television
eyeglasses-a device for which he feels millions yearn constitute a case in
point. When the idea for this handy, pocket-size portable TV set occurred to
him in 1936, he was forced to dismiss it as impractical. But a few weeks ago,
feeling that the electronics industry was catching up with his New Deal-era
concepts, he orders some of his employees to build a mock-up.” As an inventor,
he had many futuristic ideas that are now a reality-radar, microfilm,
telemedicine, computer matchmaking, wireless spectrum regulation,
bone-conduction hearing aids, tape recorders, electronic newspapers, and
personal health trackers.
Source: DNA -27th December,2016
