Oculus Rift-

The Rift is a virtual reality head-mounted display developed

by Oculus VR. It was initially proposed in aKickstarter campaign, during

which Oculus VR (at the time an independent company) raised US$2.5

million for the development of the product.

The Rift is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2016, making it one of the

first consumer-targeted virtual reality headsets. Oculus has described it as "the

first really professional PC-based VR headset". It has a resolution of 1080×1200

per eye, a 90 Hz refresh rate, and a wide field of view. It has integrated

headphones which provide spatialised audio. The Rift has rotational and

positional tracking. The positional tracking is performed by a USB stationary IR

sensor, which normally sits on the user's desk, allowing for using the Rift while

sitting, standing, or walking around the same room.

The Rift has gone through various prototype versions in the years since the

Kickstarter campaign, around 5 of which were demoed to the public. Two of these

prototypes were made available for purchase as 'development kits', DK1 in late

2012 and DK2 in mid 2014, to give developers a chance to develop content in

time for the Rift's release. However, both were also purchased by a large number

of enthusiasts who wished to get an early preview of the technology.

Around the age of 15, Palmer Luckey started to fall in love with the concept of

virtual reality.

By day, he attended classes at the local community college. By night, he was the

founder and admin of ModRetro, a community dedicated to modifying vintage

gaming consoles. Taking a N64 and making it portable; contorting an Xbox into a

package half its original size — that sort of thing.

If there’s anything that videogames have taught gamers to love, it’s collecting

things — the rarer, the better. Palmer’s favorite thing to pick up? Early attempts

at virtual reality headsets.

Throughout the late 80s and 90s, dozens of companies tried to turn VR headsets

into commercial success. All of them failed — hard. Some were too expensive;

most just didn’t work worth a damn. Allof them were far too ahead of their time

(with components being far too expensive to source, and most home computers

being far too weak to power anything worth playing.)

Sourcing his collection everywhere from industry liquidation sales to government

auctions and carting himself out to the seller to avoid paying for shipping, he’d

get his hands on headsets that once cost nearly $100,000 for less than $100. By

his own estimates, Palmer has the largest private collection of virtual reality

headsets in the world.

From all the hype that Oculus Rift got from E3 with the help from Carmack, it

stirred some interest from seasoned tech professionals Brendan Iribe and Mike

Antonov. From all the following meetups with these people, Brendan became a

CEO and Antonov as chief software architect. That helped the Oculus company

tremendously, as it allowed them to make a lot more HMD’s than initially planned

for.

It sounded a little bit insane, but Zuckerberg wasn’t joking. “There are certain

things in the future that you know will happen,” he continued. “The real

challenge is figuring out what’s possible now and how exactly do you make it.”

(Oculus Rift)

In just a few years of tinkering, the teenage Luckey turned all of that on its head,

using existing parts to engineer something far better and lighter than any other

headset out there, all for under $300—thereby creating the first virtual reality

device that could be a viable mainstream product. And he did it not in a lab but in

his parents’ garage.

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Oculus Rift. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 17, 2015, from smithsonian:

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luckey

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