EXTERNAL IR ILLUMINATOR ENABLING IMPROVED HEAD TRACKING AND SURFACE RECONSTRUCTION FOR VIRTUAL REALITY

Disclosed embodiments include methods and systems for utilizing a structured projection pattern to perform depth detection. In some instances, the structured projection pattern forms a dot pattern, which is projected by a projector, wherein the projector includes one or more infrared (IR) light dot pattern illuminators for projecting an IR light dot pattern to a surrounding environment. The IR dot pattern light that is at least partially reflected off one or more objects in the surrounding environment is detected by one or more cameras attached to a head-mounted display (HMD). The HMD, which is physically untethered from the projector, utilizes the captured IR dot pattern light reflections to track movement of the HMD and/or perform depth detection of one or more objects in the environment surrounding the HMD.