VR

Short for virtual reality, VR is a computer-generated artificial environment that allows a user to view, explore, and manipulate the environment and a term popularized by Jaron Lanier. Virtual reality is a computer generated reality manipulated and explored using input devices, such as headsets, headphones, gloves, or a computer. Using these devices, a user can browse throughout a virtual world or pickup and manipulate virtual objects. The picture shows a NASA employee using a VR system.

Jaron Lanier

Name: Jaron Zepel Lanier

Born: May 3, 1960, in New York City, New York, USA

Computer-related contributions

·         American computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author.

·         Best known for popularizing the term VR (virtual reality).

·         A pioneer in the field of VR who left Atari with Thomas G. Zimmerman in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves.

·         More recently, he advised Linden Lab on their virtual world Second Life, and was "scholar-at-large" at Microsoft Research where he has worked on the Kinect device for Xbox 360.

Significant publications

·         You Are Not a Gadget (2010).

·         Information Is an Alienated Experience (2006).

Honors and awards

·         Carnegie Mellon University's Watson award (2001).

·         Finalist for the first Edge of Computation Award (2005).

·         Honorary doctorate from New Jersey Institute of Technology (2006).

·         IEEE Virtual Reality Career Award (2009).

·         Named one of TIME's 100 most influential people (2010).

Quotes

"A real friendship ought to introduce each person to unexpected weirdness in the other."