The rise, fall and resurrection of virtual reality
1961 Morton Heilig patents the Sensorama, a TV booth in which short projected 3D films were augmented with a moving chair, audio, vibration, wind and aromas
1966 US Air Force develops first computer-driven flight simulator
1968 Ivan Sutherland at Harvard University develops head-mounted cathode ray tube display. Users can explore wire-frame graphics by turning their head
1977 First "dataglove", at the University of Illinois, allows computer users to interact with on-screen objects
1984 Researcher Jaron Lanier popularises the term "virtual reality" and founds VPL Research in Palo Alto, California. The firm is the first to sell datagloves and immersive headsets
1995 Nintendo introduces Virtual Boy, a tabletop VR headset. The device, which only displays images as red on black, fails to take off
2005 Ford Motor Co sets up an immersive VR engineering lab, trimming over a year off the development time of a new car
2012 Oculus Rift's VR headset raises $2.4 million in funding; developers begin producing the first apps for it
