Optimizing Positional and Rotational Data Collection and Transmission in VR Headsets to Observe Disruption of Internal Sensors

Authors

  • Charlie Hsu Department of Information Sciences and Technology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
  • Wenda Shao Department of Information Sciences and Technology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
  • Zhisheng Yan Department of Information Sciences and Technology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Abstract

With the development of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, security issues have become a primary concern for
users. Disruptions of sensors in headsets can affect virtual properties such as virtual boundaries that may pose
to be physically dangerous for the wearer. To observe and test varying techniques of disrupting internal
sensors in headsets, developing an app that can obtain and transmit sensor data effectively and efficiently is
vital. This project aims to address three different difficulties in creating such an app: (1) Maximizing the sample
rate of the sensor data, (2) Transmitting said data in realtime to a server, and (3) Visualizing the data. Using a
Meta Quest 2, we collect 3D coordinates as well as quaternion values to describe the positional and rotational
state of the headset. We then transmit data through a WebSocket server and graph the data with PyQt. The
app seeks to effectively promote the enhancement of the security of VR headset sensors by allowing for
experimental testing of different methodologies to disrupt internal sensors and assess current design flaws.

Published

2024-10-13

Issue

Section

College of Engineering and Computing: Department of Information Sciences and Technology