TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

The company VPL Research, founded by Jaron Lanier in 1984 and which was joined by Zimmerman, refined the idea with the DataGlove (1987), a “computer data entry and manipulation apparatus and method” which added to the “flex sensors” an electromagnetic sensor of the hand’s orientation, and the DataSuit (1988), which applied the principles of the DataGlove to the entire body. With the EyePhone, a virtual reality headset, and the RB2, a shared environment (“Reality Built for Two”) (1989), VPL created the prototype of an extended corporeal interface for virtual reality.