It's 2025

I promised to stop pre-Oculus, so here is my demo from 2011/2012 of a completely portable VR system. I did try for a short while to push this as a technical venture, but in the short term, the PC was the right platform. An iPhone 3GS driving a 1998 Sony Glasstron AR/VR display.

In the late 1990s, much of the VR industry moved to CAVE-like systems on SGI big iron

Then I showed some video from the early Division Provision system, which was the "high-end" VR option in the early 1990s. This from an early study with Mel Slater on virtual treadmills, virtual bodies and presence responses

And not just flight, but an example of an anti-aircraft training simulator using a projector in a dome. The Langham Dome is now a museum, though it closes over winter.

Then the VR industry owes a lot to the simulator industry. There is an interesting link between the early "Blue Box" Link simulators, and the rise of digital simulation in the 1980s. These are analogue flight simulators using small cameras flying over real models.

Less well-known is that the building is still there! Now the Church of Notre Dame de France. The panorama has long gone, and the building was damaged in the Second World War. You can see the curve of the main panorama gallery if you are to the south of the church, just off the main square

I've been ask to share a few of the images from my talk "Early History of Immersive In and Around London". First the relatively well-known Barker Panorama in Leicester Square. Lots of resources about this online: