To us, using it today, virtual reality seems a unified idea, a combination of aural, visual, and vestibular (balance) stimuli, which gives a convincing sensation of being in a false location. By contrast, the very first thing that looks like VR was the Brewster Stereoscope, based on Charles Wheatstone’s Stereoscope.
Wheatstone was one of those 19th century inventors who seems to have been involved in every invention of his era—electronics, cryptography, telegraphy, spectroscopy, acoustics, and so on. To make the Stereoscope, he had to explain binocular vision first, and how it gives the impression of solidity to the world (crucial in VR).
Wheatstone’s Stereoscope was less impressive, but established the basic principles of virtual reality. It used different images for each eye, reflected by an individual mirror. However, this happened…
