Active shutter 3D system in the context of Stereoscopic

Eyewear is a term used to refer to all devices worn over both of a person's eyes, or occasionally a single eye (therefore known as a monocle), for one or more of a variety of purposes. Though historically used for vision improvement and correction, eyewear has also evolved into eye protection, for fashion and aesthetic purposes, and starting in the late 20th century, computers and virtual reality.

The primary intention of wearing eyewear can vary based on the need or desire of the wearer. Eyewear comes in different forms, such as glasses, contact lenses, sunglasses and many more. Eyewear (such as glasses and contact lenses) helps most people see clearer or read. Eyewear also can be used for protection, such as sunglasses which protect wearers from the Sun's ultraviolet rays which are damaging to the eyes when unprotected, eyepatches to protect injured eyes from further damage, or goggles which protect the wearer's eyes from debris, water and other chemicals. Variants of eyewear can conversely inhibit or disable vision for its bearers, such as blindfolds and view-limiting device for humans, blinkers for horses, or blinders for birds, especially poultry. Eyewear also exists for other specialized or niche purposes, such as active shutter 3D systems and anaglyph 3D glasses for stereoscopy, and night-vision goggles for low-light environments.

Virtuality was a range of virtual reality machines produced by Virtuality Group, and found in video arcades in the early 1990s. The machines delivered real-time VR gaming via a stereoscopic VR headset, joysticks, tracking devices and networked units for a multi-player experience.

Virtuality Group was originally founded in October 1987 as "W Industries", named after Dr. Jonathan D Waldern, and renamed to Virtuality in 1993. Work by Waldern at the Human Computer Interface Research Unit of Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University), which later moved to Loughborough University, had by 1986 produced a system known as the "Roaming Caterpillar" that could deliver a stereoscopic view of a three-dimensional scene. The image was viewed on a moveable CRT screen using shutter glasses, with head and hand tracking incorporating acoustic sensors to determine the user's position. Waldern subsequently formed W Industries to commercialise 3D visualisation technology together with colleagues Al Humrich, Richard Holmes and Terry Rowley. The team would produce multiple prototype VR units (including the "giraffe", which was a mechanically tracked headset mounted on a boom arm) with a fifth prototype version being produced by 1989 that would form the basis of the first commercially released Virtuality system.