In 1955 Morton Heilig, who was a director and an inventor. in a document entitled “The Cinema of the Future” he described for the first time the possibility of creating multisensory experiences for viewers. Five years later Heilig built a first prototype of his invention; he also made five short films that could be seen in this machine and on August 28, 1962 he obtained the patent for the “Sensorama Simulator”. This is why he is considered the father of virtual reality. The Sensorama resembled the arcade games of the 80s, like a pinball machine to trivialize; and gave the viewer – one to four at most – the experience of riding a motorcycle through the streets of Brooklyn, with the wind on your face. the vibrations of the motorcycle and the smells of the city reproduced in 3D (including the smell of pizza and the stench of bus exhausts). We are in the early 1960s and that object was truly pioneering. Heilig thought it might be the cinema of the future and he wasn’t completely wrong, but as pioneers often do, he had come too early, there was no adequate technology to support his vision and the business model could not hold up.
The site of the School for Cinematic Arts of California remembers him, as well as for several films, for a hundred inventions, including a camera for shooting in 3D, a very curious Telesphere Mask that recalls the Oculus of today and which he patented in 1960. , and an Experience Theater, patented in 1969, which is a sort of Sensorama brought into a movie theater. Towards the end of his life, he also built a Supercruiser, a scooter very similar to those that go around our streets today. He died in 1997.
On Vimeo there is a 4 minute video from 1980 showing the Sensorama in action and Heilig grappling with his 3D camera.
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