With the headset and controllers torn asunder, we move right along to one of the Lighthouse base stations. What secrets does it hold? Let's find out!

Firing up our IR camera, we get a glimpse of the internals through the IR-transparent front panel—an array of bright IR LEDs, and a pair of motorized lasers make the Lighthouse shine bright.

While the Rift works with an IR camera and some fancy machine vision software to follow the Constellation IR LED array, the Vive uses an entirely different system for position tracking.

Each Lighthouse flashes its IR LED array, signaling the start of a cycle. Vertical and horizontal lasers then sweep across the room, and all of those fancy photosensors on the headset and controllers start looking for lasers.

The tracked headset or controller can then determine its position based on the order its sensors receive the laser sweeps.