Head Mounted Displays for Virtual Reality

One of the goals in the development of Virtual Reality VR is to achieve total immersion where one sees and interacts with objects in a virtual world in the same way that one sees and interacts with the objects of the real world. One becomes immersed in another world through the sense of sight. Thus the technique of displaying a virtual environment determines, in part, the degree to which one can become transported out of the real world and into the virtual world. The developers of VR have utilized the head mounted display HMD as a mean of displaying the virtual environment to the user. The HMD is not new but has seen widespread use as an information display in military aircraft. In an HMD, displays and imaging optics mounted on a headset provide a virtual image in front of the eyes. In the VR domain this environment. A tracking device allows the computer to present a viewpoint corresponding to the users head position and orientation, thus enabling freedom of movement for the user within the virtual environment. These and other characteristics enhance the total immersion capabilities of the HMD.