It's No Oculus, But This DIY VR Headset Costs Under $80 to Make
Use an Arduino Micro and IMU to create this inexpensive VR rig.
VR headsets like the Oculus Rift line can be expensive, but as "jamesvdberg" proves, they don’t necessarily have to be. In fact, a simple setup can be made for $80, using an Arduino Micro and an MPU6050 for control. Impressively, the project started out with an initial goal to build a device for under $150, but after some careful sourcing, James was able to cut this nearly in half.
The build mounts the Arduino to the front of a Google Cardboard-compatible HMD, which is wired up to the IMU attached to the side. A 5" Raspberry Pi LDC screen is inserted inside, and a modified USB assembly provides power and allows it to communicate with a PC to act as an inertial mouse. The net effect when the monitor is hooked up is that when you look up/down/left/right, your screen follows along, creating a very inexpensive VR rig.
One final trick here is that a program called Tridef 3D is used to split the output images into two eye sections for a stereoscopic 3D display. The “traditional” monitor is mirrored onto the headset for gaming, and an on/off switch is also implemented for when you need to use a normal mouse.