Good morning, student filmmakers from all over the world! Julia here has sparked my curiosity for Virtual Reality and I have started to as well, perform my own research. It is an emerging field and there is not so much information available out there, or maybe I do not know where to look for it so I have a few unanswered questions. 
Does anyone from here has any idea who invented virtual reality? Who is the person who one day came up with the concept of VR? What is the origin story of VR?

Looking forward to find out the answer! 

The answer to this question might seem a bit unexpected, or at least this is how it was for me. Research suggests that Virtual Reality has its roots all the way back in 1838 when Charles Wheatstone discovered that our brain works in mysterious ways, because each of our eyes processes a two-dimensional image into a single object of three dimensions. Based on this theory, he later developed the View-Master stereoscope that was used for "virtual tourism". The same design of the Stereoscope from 1838 is used today for Google Cardboard and all the other low-budget VR head mounted displays for smartphones.

Since then, the evolution of VR is long and full of interesting stories which I recommend you to read. Big industries have been using the benefits of this technology for over 100 years. In 1989, even NASA started using VR simulations to train its astronauts. They called this “Project VIEW”. In 1991, the VR technology was being prepared to slowly be released to the public. In 1999, the popular movie, “The Matrix” described how it is to live in a virtual simulation and created mass awareness over this topic. Later on, in 2007, Google made a few steps forward by creating their 360 degrees’ street view.

In 2010, the "Oculus Rift project was born and two years later, the Oculus Kickstarter was launched. The person behind the Oculus project was Palmer Luckey.

And the rest is history.

It is a bit difficult to answer your question and point towards one person because behind this technology stand hundreds of years of technology development. If we are thinking who invented the modern Oculus VR, it is Palmer Luckey, who was only 17 when he created his first VR prototype in his parents' garage.

I guess my school Physics teacher would get along well with Charles Wheatstone if they lived in the same timeline and town. He used to improvise a lot of home-made stuff, such as 3D optical illusions or panoramic views.

Yes, the history is very long and it was also used to train pilots back in the '30s. 

We live in a world where a 17 y/o kid can influence big industries and even the future of filmmaking. The sky really isn't the limit.