1968 – Sword of Damocles

In 1968, Sutherland demonstrated an HMD with interactive computer graphics: the first true HMD. It was too large and heavy to be comfortably worn, so it was suspended from the ceiling. This gave it its name (Damocles had a sword suspended over his head by a single hair, to show him the perilous nature of those in power).

The computer-generated images were interactive: as the user turned their head, the images would update accordingly. But, given the computer processing power of the time, the images were simple white vector-line drawings against a black background. The rotation of the head was tracked electromechanically through gears (unlike today's HMDs, which use gyroscopes and light sensors), which no doubt added to the weight. Sutherland would go on to co-found Evans and Southerland, a leading computer image processing company in the 1970s and 1980s: