"Joseph Kearney, a computer-science professor in the lab, said dramatic advancements in the last decade for several technologies have allowed the field to reach its current state.

'One [advancement] is graphics cards, driven in large part by gaming. One is displays, particularly the cell phone-like displays, particularly driven by the commodity market in cell phones,' Kearney said. 'Another is tracking systems because in order to do all of this you need to know where the person is. The other is the software to build these systems.'"