Google Cardboard VR sensors

Question

I\'m using the Google Cardboard (its HeadTracker class) to detect certain things about device rotation in an AR application. It works very well.

Ho

Answer 1

The google Cardboard headset won't work with just the accelerometer, it needs the gyro.

The accelerometer can detect forces applied to the phone. That includes reading the Earth's gravitational pull, so the phone can estimate where "down" is. But the accelerometer can't tell you percisely what your orientation in 3d space is, it can only approximate that basing on the forces it read.

That's far too low accuracy for VR, so that's why you need a gyroscope.

If you are dead set on making it work on your non-gyro phone, you can write a piece of your own code approximating phone orientation basing on accelerometer data, but keep in mind it will be very far from a really satisfying VR experience.