Ivan Sutherland
«The ultimate display»

[Excerpt]

[...] «The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such room would be fatal. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.»
Ivan Sutherland

Source: ArtMuseum.net. Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality


While conducting his initial research in immersive technologies, Sutherland wrote «The Ultimate Display» in 1965 in which he made the first advance toward marrying the computer to the design, construction, navigation and habitation of virtual worlds.
Sutherland predicted that advances in computer science would eventually make it possible to engineer virtual experiences that were convincing to the senses. Sutherland believed in the ineffable potential of computers to transform the abstract nature of mathematical constructions into habitable, expressive worlds in the spirit of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland.
Although it was several years before the invention of the personal computer, in 1970, Sutherland took a crucial step towards the implementation of his vision by creating the head-mounted display – a helmet shaped apparatus designed to immerse the viewer in a visually simulated 3D environment.

Source: ArtMuseum.net. Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality