A system for performing active stereo depth computation of a head-mounted display, HMD, in a surrounding environment, the system comprising: the HMD; and a projector comprising one or more infrared dot pattern illuminators for projecting a dot pattern to illuminate selectively portions of the surrounding environment such that the dot pattern is at least partially reflected in the surrounding environment as reflected light; wherein the projector and the HMD each comprise respective wireless data transmitters for data communication between the HMD and the projector; wherein the HMD is physically untethered from the projector; wherein the HMD comprises: a first camera and a second camera having an overlapping field of view; and one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the HMD to: compute a depth of one or more objects within the overlapping field of view relative to the HMD and based at least in part on the reflected light from the dot pattern that is detected by both the first camera and the second camera; analyze images obtained with the first and second camera and determine whether an efficiency of computing the depth of the one or more objects is below a threshold value, wherein the efficiency is determined to be below the threshold value when a lack of detectable features in the surrounding environment is identified; and in response to determining that the efficiency is below the threshold value, communicate to the projector instructions to modify the dot pattern by changing at least one of: a direction for projecting the dot pattern, an intensity of the dot pattern, a density of the dot pattern, or a configuration of the dot pattern. the HMD; and a projector comprising one or more infrared dot pattern illuminators for projecting a dot pattern to illuminate selectively portions of the surrounding environment such that the dot pattern is at least partially reflected in the surrounding environment as reflected light; wherein the projector and the HMD each comprise respective wireless data transmitters for data communication between the HMD and the projector; wherein the HMD is physically untethered from the projector; wherein the HMD comprises: a first camera and a second camera having an overlapping field of view; and one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the HMD to: compute a depth of one or more objects within the overlapping field of view relative to the HMD and based at least in part on the reflected light from the dot pattern that is detected by both the first camera and the second camera; analyze images obtained with the first and second camera and determine whether an efficiency of computing the depth of the one or more a first camera and a second camera having an overlapping field of view; and one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the HMD to: compute a depth of one or more objects within the overlapping field of view relative to the HMD and based at least in part on the reflected light from the dot pattern that is detected by both the first camera and the second camera; analyze images obtained with the first and second camera and determine whether an efficiency of computing the depth of the one or more compute a depth of one or more objects within the overlapping field of view relative to the HMD and based at least in part on the reflected light from the dot pattern that is detected by both the first camera and the second camera; analyze images obtained with the first and second camera and determine whether an efficiency of computing the depth of the one or more objects is below a threshold value, wherein the efficiency is determined to be below the threshold value when a lack of detectable features in the surrounding environment is identified; and in response to determining that the efficiency is below the threshold value, communicate to the projector instructions to modify the dot pattern by changing at least one of: a direction for projecting the dot pattern, an intensity of the dot pattern, a density of the dot pattern, or a configuration of the dot pattern.