---
title: "You’d Need to Travel Back in Time Over 50 Years to Get the World’s First VR Goggles"
description: "Back in 1936, Hugo Gernback invented “teleyeglasses,” a pocket-sized, battery-operated portable TV with a separate screen for each eye, much like modern-day 3D VR glasses. Though Gernback's invention was little more than a wearable television, today's VR tech is much more impressive, allowing wearers to immerse themselves in virtual worlds."
date: "2016-12-25"
modified: "2016-12-25"
authors:
  - name: "Cecille De Jesus"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/cecille"
url: "https://futurism.com/youd-need-to-travel-back-in-time-50-years-to-get-the-worlds-first-vr-goggles"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
  - "Virtual Reality"
tags:
  - "hugo gernsback"
  - "teleyeglasses"
  - "virtual reality"
  - "vr goggles"
---

# You’d Need to Travel Back in Time Over 50 Years to Get the World’s First VR Goggles

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/The-Man-Who-Invented-VR-Goggles-50-Years-Too-Soon.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Alfred Eisenstaedt/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images\</em\>*

## The Original VR

Currently, the desire for [virtual reality (VR)](<https://futurism.com/?s=virtual+reality>) is at an all-time high, driving [the industry](<https://futurism.com/top-vr-developers-unite-to-form-the-global-virtual-reality-association>) to innovate at a very fast pace. In addition to straightforward VR technology, we're also seeing progress in [augmented reality (AR)](<https://futurism.com/?s=augmented+reality>) and [merged reality (MR)](<https://newsroom.intel.com/chip-shots/intel-ceo-introduces-vision-for-merged-reality-at-2016-intel-developer-forum/>), an emerging hybrid where you can interact with digital objects using the physical objects around you, allowing you to hit a virtual ball with a real-life baseball bat, for example.

![Hugo Gernsback, September 9, 1963. Life Magazine. ](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/hgclip14c.jpg>)
*Hugo Gernsback, September 9, 1963. Life Magazine.*

But when did we first start designing wearable screens that would transport us to another world? American author and inventor [Hugo Gernsback](<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hugo-Gernsback>) is said to have created the first entertainment eyewear device — the closest predecessor to current VR goggles.

[Gernsback ](<http://www.nndb.com/people/381/000045246/>)is the same guy who created the brilliantly imaginative fiction magazine “[Amazing Stories](<http://amazingstoriesmag.com/>)” in 1926, which later on was adapted into a TV series by Steven Spielberg. He is also responsible for coining the term “[science fiction](<http://www.luxembourg.public.lu/en/le-grand-duche-se-presente/luxembourgeois-celebres_PHASE-II/scientifiques/hugo-gernsback/index.html>),” which he originally referred to as “scientifiction.” Because of this, the World Science Fiction Society's annual award ceremony is referred to as the [the Hugo Awards](<http://www.thehugoawards.org/>).

In 1936, Gernsback invented his television eyeglasses or “teleyeglasses,” a pocket-sized, battery-operated portable TV with a separate screen for each eye, much like today's 3D VR glasses. The device provided an experience *Life Magazine* described as “neo-Martian.” At only about 140 grams (a little less than a third of a pound), the glasses came with small cathode-ray tubes inside of them, a pair of antennae protruding from their top (like those found on old TVs), and a promise from Gernsback that they posed no risk of electrocution…anymore.

## Decades of Innovation

Of course, Gernsback's invention isn't exactly comparable to modern VR goggles — essentially, it was just a wearable mini TV — but for something conceived in the 1930s, it is pretty impressive. However, today's VR/AR tech is much more impressive, and it seems like every day something new is happening to make it even more so.

In late 2016, the [HTV Vive](<http://www.vive.com/us/>) [went wireless](<https://futurism.com/get-ready-htc-vive-is-making-virtual-reality-wireless>), untethering VR fans from their systems with one-and-a-half hours of battery life, and [Oculus](<https://www.oculus.com/>) is currently working on [a prototype of a VR headset](<http://uploadvr.com/hands-santa-cruz-inside-out/>) that wouldn't need to be connected to a console at all. Several companies are looking into ways to [incorporate haptic technology](<https://futurism.com/?s=haptic>) into their systems, allowing users to not only see and hear virtual worlds, but feel them as well, and a few companies are even letting people smell and [taste virtual reality](<https://futurism.com/category/vr-news>).

Unlike Gernsback's teleyeglasses, today's VR systems are designed for far more than entertainment. They are being used to train [medics](<https://futurism.com/armed-forces-using-combination-of-arvr-to-train-flight-medics>), [astronauts](<https://futurism.com/category/vr-news>), and sailors, treat phobias, and even provide medical diagnoses. From the tech itself to its many uses, the world of virtual reality has truly come a long way in a relatively short amount of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYMzuvjBbN4&feature=youtu.be

### Author social links  
[Facebook](<http://facebook.com/thescientress>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://ph.linkedin.com/in/cecillebautistadejesus>)