The CAVE virtual-reality room system was first demonstrated in 1992.
CAVE stands for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, a room-sized immersive display system. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago demonstrated the first CAVE at the 1992 annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, commonly called SIGGRAPH.
The system projected computer-generated images onto several walls and the floor of a room. A participant typically wore shutter glasses so the displays could present separate images to the two eyes, producing a stereoscopic effect. Tracking equipment adjusted the view as the participant moved.
A CAVE is not the same as a head-mounted display. It surrounds the user with projected imagery, while an HMD places displays directly in front of the eyes. CAVE systems have been used for scientific visualization, engineering, architecture, medical research, and training, although they require much more physical space than consumer headsets.