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Recent patent applications by Sony Interactive Entertainment have been unearthed that may be a glimpse at potential controllers for the recently announced "next generation PSVR headset" from last week.
The filing, published in November to the US Patent and Trademark Office was spotted by GamesIndustry.biz and is said to be for a "Control apparatus and control program" and includes images of a new controller from the front and back.
Though there's no guarantee that the finished product will look anything like this, interesting features include what is apparently a small LED panel that can emit light in a variety of colours, presumably to replace and offer a similar function to the coloured orbs on the top of the previous PSVR's Move controllers. Also spotted are trigger buttons that have a similar haptic feedback effect to the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller, as well as a thumb sensor and three different finger sensors.
New Sony patent reveals another look at their potential PSVR2 controller
– a trigger button with resistance and haptic feedback
– might include finger tracking via sensors like the Valve Index
– small LED panel on the top instead of an white orbhttps://t.co/HIABLPQWUy pic.twitter.com/nyy5sv7cf3— Nibel (@Nibellion) March 3, 2021
It's not the only interesting controller-related stuff that Sony PlayStation have filed trademarks for lately either, with the company apparently investigating methods to turn non-electronic household objects into a game controller, including as an example, a banana.
The recently published filing to the US Patent and Trademark Office reads: "It would be desirable if a user could use an inexpensive, simple and non-electronic device as a video game peripheral. The present disclosure seeks to address or at least alleviate some of the above-identified problem."
The methods offered up in the patent describe using a camera to identify objects in the player's hands and track them based on pixels, contours and colours, with examples given in the filing complete with diagrams of a banana being used as a controller. The document also details the possibility of "Two-Object controllers" for adding additional items, with further examples including a pair of oranges. (As clocked by Twitter source Nibellion in the Tweets below.)
Obviously at this stage it's far too early to say for sure if any of these patents will come to fruition (pun intended, we have no shame) but in last week's announcement PlayStation said its new PSVR headset would "incorporate some of the key features found in the DualSense wireless controller, along with a focus on great ergonomics." The PSVR2 (or whatever it ends up being called) for PlayStation 5 isn't expected until 2022 at the earliest.
The idea is that you (or devs) teach a game which objects can be used as controllers via camera tracking (probably through your VR headset)
This also works with multiple objects, for example: using two oranges as a steering wheel pic.twitter.com/DYO3JdWsyB
— Nibel (@Nibellion) March 3, 2021
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