Future Vision Technologies
{{Short description|Companies based in Champaign County, Illinois}}
{{primary sources|date=August 2015}}
File:VictorMaxx-StuntMaster.jpg
Future Vision Technologies (FVT), operating from 1991 to 1995, was part of the second wave of companies working to commercialize virtual reality technology. The company was founded by a team out of the Advanced Digital Systems Laboratory in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The three original members, Matt Klapman, David Frerichs,[http://www.frerichs.net/bio.html Frerichs Bio] and Kevin Lee, were later joined by John Belmonte. The company ceased to be an active entity when its PC card business was sold to Fujitsu Microelectronics.{{Cite web |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Fujitsu+Microelectronics+Inc.+forms+new+graphics+products...-a016536569 |title=Fujitsu Microelectronics Purchases FVT |access-date=2007-10-18 |archive-date=2011-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520121925/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Fujitsu+Microelectronics+Inc.+forms+new+graphics+products...-a016536569 |url-status=dead }}
Products
The company produced a number of products which appear to be first of their kind in the market.
- Stuntmaster Head Mounted Display (HMD) - the first{{Citation needed|date=March 2016}} consumer virtual reality headset to ship in the market[https://groups.google.com/group/sci.virtual-worlds/browse_thread/thread/4776cf57ced1d4c/1a66d26c1d26b2fe?lnk=gst&q=stuntmaster+ces#1a66d26c1d26b2fe Newsgroup post referencing initial release of Stuntmaster] The low-resolution, monocular device shipped with a patented[http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,323,174.PN.&OS=PN/5,323,174&RS=PN/5,323,174 FVT First Headtracker Patent][http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,353,042.PN.&OS=PN/5,353,042&RS=PN/5,353,042 FVT Second Headtracker Patent] mechanical head tracker which had fast response times and accurate positioning. The product itself was marketed and sold under license by VictorMaxx.
- Sapphire IME with Pixel Bus - an integrated 3D graphics card with graphics and audio output. A major innovation, demonstrated at AES 94 in Washington, DC and at SIGGRAPH 94 in Orlando, FL, USA, was the ability to chain multiple cards together across multiple Pentium-class personal computers to create a single simulation environment known as a VR CAVE. The Siggraph 94 demonstration consisted of three Sapphire IME cards installed in three Pentium (90 MHz) computers driving three synchronized Barco projectors. Each screen was running frame-interlaced stereo, allowing users wearing LCD shutter glasses to be fully immersed in the scene. Until this demonstration, VR CAVE implementations had only been implemented using high-end graphics workstations from companies like Silicon Graphics.[http://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/CAVE/oldCAVE/CAVE.overview.html] UIC VR CAVE Historical Overview
- InterFACE Portable Virtual Environment Generator
Contemporary virtual reality companies
- Autodesk (Cyberspace Developer Kit Group)