Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"...if you want to know what your future looks like, don't waste your time on Analog; read Time magazine. We are already saturated in the future. "
- Peter Watts
 |
| Virtual Reality Construct | ||
| A means of projecting a virtual reality experience without special headsets. |
Science fiction has presented many kinds of virtual reality technovelgy over the years; here is a very early (and perhaps the first) description of a completely immersive virtual environment.
| At once the cluttered children's room disappeared and they were surrounded by a wall of hot swirling gray and incandescent orange. It cleared...
And at once Forrester and the two children were seated in the bridge of a spaceship. The toys were gone, the furnishings replaced by bright metal instruments and flickering, whistling gauges. And outside crystal panels surged the devastating chromosphere of a sun. Forrester shrank back instinctively from the heat before he realized that there was none. It was illusion. But it was perfect. "By God!" he cried admiringly. "How was that done?" ...The calm voice of the joymaker replied at once. "The phenomenon you are currently inspecting, Man Forrester, is a photic projection on a vibratory curtain. An interference effect produces a virtual image on the surface of an optical sphere with the nexus of yourself and your companions as its geometric center..." |
| From The Age of The Pussyfoot,
by Frederik Pohl. Published by Ballantine in 1966 Additional resources -
|
In reading this, I'm strongly reminded of a real-world technology: the Heliodisplay, a device that projects an image on what appears to be a fine mist. I saw this at the Wired magazine NextFest exhibition in Chicago, and it really works.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Age of The Pussyfoot
More Ideas
and Technology by Frederik Pohl
Tech news articles related to The Age of The Pussyfoot
Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl
| 'Princess Leia Project' Images That Float In The Air |
| LG Rollable Version Of Niven's Poster TV |
| Foldable Galaxy Phones, I Swear They're Coming (Maybe) |
| WatchSense Perfect For Fat-Fingered Smartwatch Owners |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.'
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.'
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
