Peeking into the future

Rik Henderson is ready to embrace an augmented future and is thrilled that he doesn't have to look like a 'glass-hole' to do so

- By Rik Henderson

I've always been intrigued by the concept of virtual and/or augmented reality, at least since W Industries first introduced its Virtuality arcade units back in the early '90s. The headsets back then were akin to wearing an exhaust manifold (and ran almost as hot), while the low graphical resolution made even those with 20-20 vision wonder if they were bedevilled by cataracts, but it was a glimpse of a future straight from the pages of a sci-fi novel.

Sadly, as with many innovations of the time, it never really took off as expected and Virtuality (just like arcades themselves) disappeared. VR thus remained largely stagnant until Oculus and subsequently Meta entered the scene decades later.