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Abstract

This article defines a new category of media technologies, the see-through graphical interface, which are interface devices that project graphical information into a user’s field of view. This category includes technologies as diverse as head-up displays, augmented reality, military gunsights, and others. This article identifies and discusses the first see-through graphical interface, the British Mark II gyro gunsight, a computing gunsight used in the cockpits of fighter aircraft during the latter half of World War II. On the basis of an analysis of the design and history of this gunsight, this article considers the implications of see-through graphical interfaces for prevailing ideas on virtuality, materiality, human–computer interaction, and media history.

Keywords

Augmented reality computing history graphical user interface gyro gunsight head-up display material military history see-through graphical interface virtual virtuality

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The origin of the see-through graphical interface

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