You can now use your Sony headphones as a free real-time head tracker for race and flight simulators on PC, several hundred games already supported — enthusiast creates open-source app that translates live sensor data into in-game camera controls

Sony makes some of the best headphones on the market, and some of their recent models even include a myriad of sensors for spatial audio. These are standard gyroscopes and accelerometers capable of precise tracking, so why keep them limited to just audio features? That's exactly what developer Nicholas Slattery has done with his new project called "Sony Head Tracker" — it's an app that turns your Sony headphones and earbuds into a real-time head tracker for PC games.

I made Sony headphones work as a free head tracker for 200+ PC games from r/pcmasterrace

The app essentially acts as a bridge between the hardware and the software, which is OpenTrack. Sony baked the Android Head Tracker protocol into its headphones' firmware, which is what enabled spatial audio to expand the soundstage on supported devices. This data is ignored by Windows, but Slattery figured out a way to tap into the protocol and read everything it's capturing.

That includes rotation vectors, gyroscope fields, and Euler Angles (live calculation of yaw, pitch, and roll). The raw data packets are then packaged into a UDP stream that the OpenTrack software can read and understand. OpenTrack supports over 200 PC games and usually works with phones, webcams, and specialized eye or IR trackers, but Slattery's app opens it to an entirely new and ingenious set of devices.

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Currently, Sony's WH/WF-1000XM6, WH/WF-1000XM5, and Sony ULT WEAR (WH-ULT900N) are officially compatible. Older models like the WH-1000XM4 or XM3 won't work because they lack the hardware (sensors) required for the head tracking. Apple's AirPods, which popularized Spatial Audio, use the company's proprietary protocol that doesn't open itself up on any device, as you'd expect, so they're also ruled out.

Once everything is set up, you just wear your Sony headphones and the in-camera will respond to your head movements, turning around with you. If you look to the side or glance up, the camera will peep there as well, as if you were wearing a VR headset. But keep in mind that this is not a VR replacement as the screen in front of you is still stationary. Regardless, this unlocks another level of immersion for race and flight sims.

The creator has tested the app to work flawlessly with Microsoft Flight Simulator, Elite Dangerous, and Assetto Corsa already. For those of us not rocking elaborate multi-monitor configs, something like this can serve as a middle ground between a true 6DoF setup and a simple helmet cam in-game, all for free. Sony Head Tracker is also open-source, so we only expect it to improve over time and expand its compatibility.

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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.

9 Comments Comment from the forums

bit_user

I'm surprised they get enough accuracy with just compass and accelerometers. I guess it doesn't have quite the same accuracy requirement as VR, since that usually requires multiple cameras to fine-tune the tracking produced by the IMS.

BTW, I'm into year 6, with my XM3 headphones! The darn things just keep working, despite thousands of hours' use. I haven't even replaced the battery, yet! The earpads are quite worn down (I have replacements I was going to install when the battery needs replacing).

The only bad thing about that is they're Bluetooth 4 headphones, whereas BT 5 doubled the data rate. So, I really ought to upgrade, but it's just too hard to ditch something that works almost perfectly for my needs.
Reply
MosephV

bit_user said:
I'm surprised they get enough accuracy with just compass and accelerometers. I guess it doesn't have quite the same accuracy requirement as VR, since that usually requires multiple cameras to fine-tune the tracking produced by the IMS.

BTW, I'm into year 6, with my XM3 headphones! The darn things just keep working, despite thousands of hours' use. I haven't even replaced the battery, yet! The earpads are quite worn down (I have replacements I was going to install when the battery needs replacing).

The only bad thing about that is they're Bluetooth 4 headphones, whereas BT 5 doubled the data rate. So, I really ought to upgrade, but it's just too hard to ditch something that works almost perfectly for my need

bit_user said:
I'm surprised they get enough accuracy with just compass and accelerometers. I guess it doesn't have quite the same accuracy requirement as VR, since that usually requires multiple cameras to fine-tune the tracking produced by the IMS.

BTW, I'm into year 6, with my XM3 headphones! The darn things just keep working, despite thousands of hours' use. I haven't even replaced the battery, yet! The earpads are quite worn down (I have replacements I was going to install when the battery needs replacing).

The only bad thing about that is they're Bluetooth 4 headphones, whereas BT 5 doubled the data rate. So, I really ought to upgrade, but it's just too hard to ditch something that works almost perfectly for my needs.
I'm still rocking my XM3's as well. They won't die! I hope their newer models have the same longevity for when the time eventually comes.
Reply
bit_user

MosephV said:
I'm still rocking my XM3's as well. They won't die! I hope their newer models have the same longevity for when the time eventually comes.
A couple years ago, I thought about upgrading and looked at the Amazon customer reviews of the XM5's. They seemed significantly worse than the XM4 (which seemed roughly on par with the XM3). For me, I think the XM6 would be the next step (but I haven't looked at them in the same detail).
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gaspoweredcat

A feature they clearly lifted from audeze after PlayStation bought them, this was on the mobius back in like 2019
Reply
WonkoTheSaneUK

Apparently, any headset or earbuds that support "spacial audio" have the necessary motion sensors for this.
Reply
wakuwaku

bit_user said:
The only bad thing about that is they're Bluetooth 4 headphones, whereas BT 5 doubled the data rate. So, I really ought to upgrade, but it's just too hard to ditch something that works almost perfectly for my needs.
No it doesn't thats just your imagination. Only Bluetooth LE data rate is doubled. Classic bluetooth data rate, which is what most audio codecs uses has stayed the same since 2.0. If you use LDAC on Sonys, which is the most bandwidth intensive codec of them all, there is no difference whatsoever going from 4 to 5 (and even to 6), its exactly the same. Other codecs don't even come close.

However if your headphones use LE audio then yes thats what you can take advantage of. However LE audio just simply increases the quality of audio over BLE to the standard of the other audio codecs. The main advantage is power consumption, you can get similar audio quality but use less power for both the transmitter (smartphone) and receiver (headphones), giving you more battery life.

Maybe read up on something before pretending to know something about what you are posting about yeah? Don't be like Tom's staff.
Reply
usertests

wakuwaku said:
No it doesn't thats just your imagination. Only Bluetooth LE data rate is doubled.
Also, every feature you've ever heard of in Bluetooth 5 beyond the absolute basics is optional, because the Bluetooth SIG sucks.
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bit_user

wakuwaku said:
No it doesn't thats just your imagination. Only Bluetooth LE data rate is doubled.
Okay, then that was probably a misunderstanding, on my part.

wakuwaku said:
Classic bluetooth data rate, which is what most audio codecs uses has stayed the same since 2.0. If you use LDAC on Sonys, which is the most bandwidth intensive codec of them all, there is no difference whatsoever going from 4 to 5 (and even to 6), its exactly the same. Other codecs don't even come close.
Okay, yes. I do use LDAC. However, my old phone supported different bit rate modes where one could lock it into the highest bit rate. If I did that, it had an extremely hard time maintaining that top bit rate. If you did almost anything beyond holding up the phone right next to your head, the audio would start to cut out.

So, I guess my hope with BT 5 or 6 is that it would at least do a better job of maintaining higher bit rates, even if that peak channel bandwidth didn't change.

wakuwaku said:
Maybe read up on something before pretending to know something about what you are posting about yeah?
I thought I had an adequate understanding to support the small remark I made, but thanks for taking the time to post a correction. Nobody is right 100% of the time.
Reply
helper800

bit_user said:
A couple years ago, I thought about upgrading and looked at the Amazon customer reviews of the XM5's. They seemed significantly worse than the XM4 (which seemed roughly on par with the XM3). For me, I think the XM6 would be the next step (but I haven't looked at them in the same detail).
Hey, I actually have the XM5s and have not had any issues with them. Their ANC is much better than the XM4 from what I understand, and are par with the XM4s performance. What most people don't like about them is the headband, but I have not had any issues with it. Some people have had them break on the swivels. I personally got them because they had some of the best ANC at the time and the new work space I was in had a server node with loud fans. Works like a charm.
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