Marc “Davka” DeGroot (July 2, 1959 - August 8, 2004) was a software developer. Son to Louis de Groot and Barbara de Groot. Brother to David de Groot.
He contributed to early virtual reality companies. He was a senior computer scientist at VPL Research and CTO of Ono-Sendai1), responsible for the never-released Sega VR. He founded Immersive Systems Inc. to develop a virtual world runtime named Meme.
He is listed as one of the inventors on US patent 5526022, the patent for the head orientation sensor to be used by Sega VR.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Dutchess and Rockland Counties, New York. In 1974, Marc studied at the “Ecole Active Bilangue” (maybe the Jeannine Manuel one) in Paris, France.2)
His company Immersive Systems Inc. was created on January 18, 1994 3)
On March 1st 2004, the company was suspended.4)
After having moved to Taos, New Mexico, Marc ended his life on August 8, 2004.
Meme was part of a greater project of deGroot's to build a decentralized online 3D multi-user universe. This project was revealed in March 2000 as Metatopia. The name was inspired by Snow Crash's “metaverse”, after he read the book in fall 1992.5)