Talk:VPL Research
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Contested deletion
[edit]This article should not be speedily deleted for lack of asserted importance because... it was one of the first virtual reality companies in history. Now that virtual reality medium is starting to take off, it is important to document where VR came from. VPL Research was one of the pioneers in the industry and they deserve credit for laying the foundation of virtual reality.
"Supposedly"
[edit]Why "Supposedly, VPL started in the corner of Lanier's cottage in the San Francisco Bay Area"? "Programmers at Work", by Susan Lammers (1986) has the interviewer say "I found Jaron Lanier's house on a small, rather obscure dirt road of El Camino Way, a small circular road branching off from the well-traveled El Camino Real in Palo Alto." It's a "small cottage-style house", and they discuss VPL. There is no hint of Jaron having any other office in the interview. I'll remove the "Supposedly", and maybe add a couple of facts from the interview. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2620:0:1042:0:1DCA:67D4:3C25:DA04 (talk) 08:12, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
Founders, not founder
[edit]It was cofounded by Lanier and Zimmerman. Lanier had a Visual Programming Language, Zimmerman had the glove, which Lanier thought was the perfect interface device for the VPL so they founded the company. Setenzatsu.2 (talk) 21:37, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
First company to solely focus on VR??
[edit]I stumbled upon these claims. Setenzatsu.2 (talk) 21:40, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
Z-glove?
[edit]Should it be put in the article. It's Zimmerman's original glove (optical flex sensor) + ultrasonic tracking (which allowed 3d tracking of hand position) - developed in VPL. Precursor to DataGlove Setenzatsu.2 (talk) 21:47, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
DataGlove
[edit]Young Harvill redesigned the Z-glove to use fiber-optics to measure fingerbending and magnetic sensors for 3d tracking of hand position. That was named the DataGlove. VPL had contract with NASA for the DataGlove and medical research companies purchased the DataGlove. Setenzatsu.2 (talk) 21:54, 6 June 2024 (UTC)
R & D team members
[edit]Suggestion: David Levitt, included in the list of team members, does not have a Wikipedia article and probably should. He is continuing to work in the field, developing augmented reality software. Giantspecks (talk) 22:54, 7 March 2025 (UTC)
Founding Date
[edit]The article currently mentions a founding date of 1984, but patent filings for VPL's work were made as early as 1982, and the incorporation of VPL Research, Inc. happened in 1985, per links below.
What is the appropriate way to correct the article?
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4542291A/
https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business (search for "VPL Research" or for "1265316" (the corporate entity number)) Augur (talk) 05:47, 24 March 2026 (UTC)