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VPL Research

VPL Research was the first virtual reality startup founded by Jaron Lanier and others in Silicon Valley. It created pioneering VR hardware and software, including the first real-time surgical simulator and motion capture suit. VPL helped industries like automotive and oil simulate products and worked with groups like NASA and the Olympics on VR applications. Its core products were the EyePhone goggles, DataGlove for controlling virtual objects, and DataSuit for full-body movement. VPL popularized the term "virtual reality" and inspired later VR depictions in media, before being acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999.

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110 views1 page

VPL Research

VPL Research was the first virtual reality startup founded by Jaron Lanier and others in Silicon Valley. It created pioneering VR hardware and software, including the first real-time surgical simulator and motion capture suit. VPL helped industries like automotive and oil simulate products and worked with groups like NASA and the Olympics on VR applications. Its core products were the EyePhone goggles, DataGlove for controlling virtual objects, and DataSuit for full-body movement. VPL popularized the term "virtual reality" and inspired later VR depictions in media, before being acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999.

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Bone
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VPL Research, Inc.

Jaron Lanier (b. 1960)


Founded by polymath Jaron Lanier and several friends, VPL (Virtual
Programming Language) Research was the first virtual reality (VR) startup.
Based in Silicon Valley, its seminal hardware and software were the first
commercial products of their kind and helped bring the technology into
mainstream consciousness. VPL is credited with creating the first real-time
surgical simulator (a virtual knee and gallbladder) and creating the first motion
picture capture suit, among its many varied contributions. VPL helped the city
of Berlin plan reconstruction; it helped the oil and car industries simulate
products and scenarios; it worked with NASA to experiment with flight
simulation; it worked with Jim Henson to prototype a new Muppet; and it even
worked with the International Olympic Committee to try to design a new sport
that would take place in VR (that one did not come to pass).
The company’s core products included the “EyePhone,” which was a set of large
goggles that covered the eyes to facilitate the virtual experience, and the
DataGlove, whose sensors synced with the EyePhone so the user could move
virtual objects. There was also the DataSuit, which enabled full-body
movement. The employees of VPL—known as Veeple—had a vision to enable
people to share virtual experiences simultaneously and help people realize a
newfound appreciation for the beauty of physical reality once they left the
virtual environment. As described by Lanier, before VR, there was never really
anything to compare reality to.
Influenced and inspired by giants in the field such as Ivan Sutherland, Lanier
was responsible for coining the term virtual reality, in part to distinguish VPL’s
work from the concept of virtual worlds, which was understood as an
individual alone in a virtual space, as opposed to a communal experience. VPL
in turn inspired others: examples in popular culture include the movies The
Lawnmower Man (the main character is based in part on Lanier) and Minority
Report (which used representations of VPL’s DataGlove and EyePhone as
integral elements in the futuristic storyline). By the mid-1990s, VPL’s heyday
had passed, but its vision of an immersive world inside computers is
inescapable, in movies, television shows, computer games, and more. In 1999,
Sun Microsystems acquired the worldwide rights to VPL’s patent portfolio and
technical assets.
SEE ALSO Head-Mounted Display (1967)
VPL’s virtual reality gear, including data glove, goggles, and body suit,
exemplified “gloves and goggles” virtual reality.

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