Immersive virtual reality technologies are increasingly common in the developed world of 2014. Ho... more Immersive virtual reality technologies are increasingly common in the developed world of 2014. However the technology has existed in one way, or another, for over 50 years. Studies have been undertaken in the past to trace the history of this technology, and elucidate its troubled path to popularity.
However the nature of the technology, as made up of many other entirely discrete technologies (displays, motion tracking, computing, computer graphics, haptic interfaces, and so on) means that conventional histories, particularly extant oral histories, often struggle to assess the range of factors affecting the technology. Virtual reality is hard to isolate as a technology, and therefore a new approach is needed to develop its history. This paper aims not to rewrite existing histories, but utilise new methodologies, inspired by those of corpus linguistics and the semantic history of discourse, to bring new light to the existing history. Access to online databases and digitised publications means high-volume samples of text are more feasible than ever: as such the study of changes in the usage of a key word across a broad range of academic and popular sources, enabled by computerised access, could yield historically valuable results.
This paper shall use wide-ranging samples of academic and popular literature to examine the usage of the word ‘virtual’, creating a survey of academic, journalistic, and popular sources. Its change over time having been plotted, superposition on the existing history of virtual reality technology may be able to highlight or lend nuance to elements of the history of that technology. If the technique is successful, it may be applicable to many other technologies and concepts. It is hoped that this paper will illustrate that linguistic methods, and broad analysis of textual discourse over time, can inform understandings of the history of technologies, concepts, and philosophies, in this case setting the technological development of virtual reality against an entirely new background.
A companion database referenced in my D.Phil thesis, bringing together the known technical specif... more A companion database referenced in my D.Phil thesis, bringing together the known technical specifications of hardware encountered in archival research, and missing from published collections of hardware.
Immersive virtual reality technologies are increasingly common in the developed world of 2014. Ho... more Immersive virtual reality technologies are increasingly common in the developed world of 2014. However the technology has existed in one way, or another, for over 50 years. Studies have been undertaken in the past to trace the history of this technology, and elucidate its troubled path to popularity.
However the nature of the technology, as made up of many other entirely discrete technologies (displays, motion tracking, computing, computer graphics, haptic interfaces, and so on) means that conventional histories, particularly extant oral histories, often struggle to assess the range of factors affecting the technology. Virtual reality is hard to isolate as a technology, and therefore a new approach is needed to develop its history. This paper aims not to rewrite existing histories, but utilise new methodologies, inspired by those of corpus linguistics and the semantic history of discourse, to bring new light to the existing history. Access to online databases and digitised publications means high-volume samples of text are more feasible than ever: as such the study of changes in the usage of a key word across a broad range of academic and popular sources, enabled by computerised access, could yield historically valuable results.
This paper shall use wide-ranging samples of academic and popular literature to examine the usage of the word ‘virtual’, creating a survey of academic, journalistic, and popular sources. Its change over time having been plotted, superposition on the existing history of virtual reality technology may be able to highlight or lend nuance to elements of the history of that technology. If the technique is successful, it may be applicable to many other technologies and concepts. It is hoped that this paper will illustrate that linguistic methods, and broad analysis of textual discourse over time, can inform understandings of the history of technologies, concepts, and philosophies, in this case setting the technological development of virtual reality against an entirely new background.
A companion database referenced in my D.Phil thesis, bringing together the known technical specif... more A companion database referenced in my D.Phil thesis, bringing together the known technical specifications of hardware encountered in archival research, and missing from published collections of hardware.
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However the nature of the technology, as made up of many other entirely discrete technologies (displays, motion tracking, computing, computer graphics, haptic interfaces, and so on) means that conventional histories, particularly extant oral histories, often struggle to assess the range of factors affecting the technology. Virtual reality is hard to isolate as a technology, and therefore a new approach is needed to develop its history. This paper aims not to rewrite existing histories, but utilise new methodologies, inspired by those of corpus linguistics and the semantic history of discourse, to bring new light to the existing history. Access to online databases and digitised publications means high-volume samples of text are more feasible than ever: as such the study of changes in the usage of a key word across a broad range of academic and popular sources, enabled by computerised access, could yield historically valuable results.
This paper shall use wide-ranging samples of academic and popular literature to examine the usage of the word ‘virtual’, creating a survey of academic, journalistic, and popular sources. Its change over time having been plotted, superposition on the existing history of virtual reality technology may be able to highlight or lend nuance to elements of the history of that technology. If the technique is successful, it may be applicable to many other technologies and concepts. It is hoped that this paper will illustrate that linguistic methods, and broad analysis of textual discourse over time, can inform understandings of the history of technologies, concepts, and philosophies, in this case setting the technological development of virtual reality against an entirely new background.
However the nature of the technology, as made up of many other entirely discrete technologies (displays, motion tracking, computing, computer graphics, haptic interfaces, and so on) means that conventional histories, particularly extant oral histories, often struggle to assess the range of factors affecting the technology. Virtual reality is hard to isolate as a technology, and therefore a new approach is needed to develop its history. This paper aims not to rewrite existing histories, but utilise new methodologies, inspired by those of corpus linguistics and the semantic history of discourse, to bring new light to the existing history. Access to online databases and digitised publications means high-volume samples of text are more feasible than ever: as such the study of changes in the usage of a key word across a broad range of academic and popular sources, enabled by computerised access, could yield historically valuable results.
This paper shall use wide-ranging samples of academic and popular literature to examine the usage of the word ‘virtual’, creating a survey of academic, journalistic, and popular sources. Its change over time having been plotted, superposition on the existing history of virtual reality technology may be able to highlight or lend nuance to elements of the history of that technology. If the technique is successful, it may be applicable to many other technologies and concepts. It is hoped that this paper will illustrate that linguistic methods, and broad analysis of textual discourse over time, can inform understandings of the history of technologies, concepts, and philosophies, in this case setting the technological development of virtual reality against an entirely new background.