Under the name “System and method for generating user input for a video game,” Sony patented a system that allows any object to be used as a Playstation controller, for example, bananas. The example used in the patent could not be funnier: they have obviously chosen a cheap, simple, and non-electronic object to show the system’s capability.
The company says any “non-luminous passive object being held by a user” could be used as a controller the action will be recorded by a camera.
This camera records the user’s hands and tracks their movements based on their pixels, contours and colors. Potentially, this enables the variable possibility of using any object as a Move-style controller, and also the possibility of using any pair of objects as a steering wheel-style peripheral.
The patent would enable the camera to map virtual buttons to the desired object so pressing a particular area of the object would function as a button press. Finally, it is worth remembering that the registration of a patent does not necessarily imply that such a project is in development or in the process of commercialization. Sony simply has the technology and wants to prevent others from exploiting it.
Sony’s patent shows new PSVR controller possibilities
This system, which proposes a gaming experience as opposed to the amazing PS5 DualSense, also distances itself from another recent Sony patent that offers a first glimpse of what could be the controllers for a new virtual reality system.
It is a more traditional controller that would lose the famous luminous sphere of the PlayStation Move, replaced by a LED panel that emits light. However, this controller also sports a thumb sensor and three different finger sensors.
