Idea for Positional Tracking possibly.

"Harley" wrote:
Checkout DARPA’s Micro-PNT positioning tracking technology, their TIMU (Timing and IMU chip) could be the future:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1093

"Harley" wrote:
Micro-PNT (Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation and Timing) does absolute position tracking on a single chip!

To oversimplify it; Micro-PNT adds integrates a highly-accurate master timing clock integrated into a IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) chip, making it a "TIMU" ("Timing & Inertial Measurement Unit") chip.

So these TIMU chips for Micro-PNT have integrated 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, and 3-axis magnetometer, and together with the integrated highly-accurate master timing clock it simultaneous measure the motion tracked and combines that with timing from the synchronized clock, and with sensor fusion it makes a single chip that does absolute position tracking, all without external transmitters/transceivers.

http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2013/04/10.aspx

Unless the Micro-PNT is significantly more accurate, I don't see the difference between it and existing integrated MEMS sensor chips such as the MPU-9150.

nemesiswes, as to your original question, the small, light, and cheep accelerometers suitable for a VR headset are not good enough for long-term position tracking. Oculus, myself, and many others are currently working on position sensing for the Rift, so there is a good chance someone will figure it out.

Oculus is currently looking to hire a computer vision engineer, so make of that what you will... ;)