VR as we know it today basically started when NASA built a rig sometime in the 1980s, using portable "pocket" TVs for the screens (Casio brand, IIRC). You can find pictures of these early systems (as well as early VPL datagloves) with a google search of course.
Before that, there was Ivan Sutherland's "Sword of Damocles" - arguably the real beginning of AR/VR (Philco had an earlier system, but it was meant for tele-operation, whereas Sutherland's system used computer generated graphics):
Interestingly about this system - and isn't mentioned much - is a part of it called the "Twinkle Box" - it was a three-dimensional position tracking system that used light "beams" (generated by some form of slit-scanning mechanical system) to track an object...sound like anything familiar?
Before that, there was Ivan Sutherland's "Sword of Damocles" - arguably the real beginning of AR/VR (Philco had an earlier system, but it was meant for tele-operation, whereas Sutherland's system used computer generated graphics):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Damocles_(virtual...
Interestingly about this system - and isn't mentioned much - is a part of it called the "Twinkle Box" - it was a three-dimensional position tracking system that used light "beams" (generated by some form of slit-scanning mechanical system) to track an object...sound like anything familiar?
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1500278
Further back than that? Well - Hugo Gernsback had some kind of idea about a TV or such you strapped to your head:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/05/ralph-124c-41-a-...