Name Morton Heilig Died May 14, 1997 | Education University of Chicago | |
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Morton heilig s sensorama interview mov
Morton Leonard Heilig (December 22, 1926 – May 14, 1997) was a pioneer in Virtual Reality (VR) technology. He applied his cinematographer experience and with the help of his partner developed the Sensorama over several years from 1957, patenting it in 1962.
It was big, bulky, and shaped like a 1980s era video arcade game. The Sensorama was quite impressive for 1960s technology. The game gave the player the experience of riding a motorcycle on the streets of Brooklyn. The player felt the wind on their face, the vibration of the motorcycle seat, a 3D view, and even smells of the city.
Morton wanted to create “cinema of the future.” The Sensorama was doomed, however, from the high costs of the filmmaking. The problem was not that the apparatus addressed the wrong senses; the business community just couldn't figure out how to sell it. He was not able to find the amount of funds necessary to create new 3-D films “obtained with three 35 mm cameras mounted on the cameraman.”
Morton is buried at Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
