Feasibility of Meta Quest 2 for tracking upper-limb movements under varying field of view conditions: a pilot study

Measuring upper-limb movement using accessible motion capture (MoCap) technologies is of growing interest in rehabilitation and human motion analysis. While virtual reality (VR) systems offer an attractive alternative to traditional MoCap, their performance under realistic usage conditions remains insufficiently explored. In this pilot study, we provide a preliminary evaluation of the feasibility of the Meta Quest 2 as a motion tracking system by comparing wrist trajectories obtained from VR controllers with those measured using a Vicon optical MoCap system. Three healthy participants performed upper-limb movements under different head orientations, allowing the analysis of tracking performance when controllers were inside and outside the field of view (FOV) of the head-mounted display. Results show that trajectory similarity between systems is high when controllers remain within the FOV (correlation above [Formula: see text]) but decreases when controllers fall outside the visible area (down to [Formula: see text]). These findings highlight the strong dependence of inside-out VR tracking performance on FOV conditions. Overall, the Meta Quest 2 demonstrates feasible performance for capturing wrist trajectories during upper-limb movements, although tracking consistency is significantly affected by controller visibility. These preliminary results provide insight into the limitations of consumer VR systems for motion tracking in realistic scenarios and should be considered when applying such devices in applied contexts.