Head Tracking for the Oculus Rift

We present methods for efficiently maintaining human head orientation using low-cost MEMS sensors. We particularly address gyroscope integration and compensation of dead reckoning errors using gravity and magnetic fields. Although these problems have been well-studied, our performance criteria are particularly tuned to optimize user experience while tracking head movement in the Oculus Rift Development Kit, which is the most widely used virtual reality headset to date. We also present novel predictive tracking methods that dramatically reduce effective latency (time lag), which further improves the user experience. Experimental results are shown, along with ongoing research on positional tracking.