7 Things You Never Knew About VR

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, keeps on dropping those big hints that new products are coming and that his company has some interesting ideas around Virtual and Augmented Reality. It all sounds super-exciting, but while the technology is powerful the actual concepts have a big history, so here’s 7 things you never knew about VR/AR.

Robert Barker

Some claim the first attempt at creating VR took place c.1792, at around the same time as the U.S. Constitution was being developed. Irish-born painter, Robert Barker, opened his Rotunda building in London, U.K.’s Leicester Square. This was a giant cylinder containing a huge 360-degree painting. Using clever lighting tricks he gave visitors the sensation of standing in his painting. The painting changed frequently, sometimes it was a place, others a battle scene. The illusion worked pretty well – the Rotunda was a tourist hot spot for 70 years.

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