Sony patenting even more controller designs…

Er, okay. Does this mean we hold a virtual wheel in GT5? - Image 1That “magic wand” from last year isn’t the last of Sony‘s patent efforts for computer/game controllers. Here’s one Sony-assigned patent the monkeys of PatentMonkey-com found, for a “Hand-held computer interactive device” (Patent No. US 7,161,579 B2), filed on November 7, 2002, recently active on January 9, this year.

It fits in the palm of the hand. The controls are sensors mounted in the “fingers” extending from the base unit, corresponding to each finger of the human hand. Apparently, based on diagrams, it’s also motion and tilt-sensitive in addition to pressure-sensitive on the physical controls on each finger.

It’s a VR Glove. Based on the descriptions, that’s what it is (or can be), more or less (One of the referenced foreign patents was for a “telepresence surgery” glove ). A certain segment of the gaming community might draw comparisons to the Power Glove, but that’s a couple of generations behind. Somehow one gets the idea that Sony’s either covering as many bases as possible for the accessory/alternative controllers department for the PS3 or other consoles (or even the PC…) and/or they’re not going to stop with SIXAXIS as a controller design.

The only question left is if Sony is thinking of gaming applications. (Link takes you to source site; patent itself is available for download but requires subscription or going through ad-supported download).

Er, okay. Does this mean we hold a virtual wheel in GT5? - Image 1That “magic wand” from last year isn’t the last of Sony‘s patent efforts for computer/game controllers. Here’s one Sony-assigned patent the monkeys of PatentMonkey-com found, for a “Hand-held computer interactive device” (Patent No. US 7,161,579 B2), filed on November 7, 2002, recently active on January 9, this year.

It fits in the palm of the hand. The controls are sensors mounted in the “fingers” extending from the base unit, corresponding to each finger of the human hand. Apparently, based on diagrams, it’s also motion and tilt-sensitive in addition to pressure-sensitive on the physical controls on each finger.

It’s a VR Glove. Based on the descriptions, that’s what it is (or can be), more or less (One of the referenced foreign patents was for a “telepresence surgery” glove ). A certain segment of the gaming community might draw comparisons to the Power Glove, but that’s a couple of generations behind. Somehow one gets the idea that Sony’s either covering as many bases as possible for the accessory/alternative controllers department for the PS3 or other consoles (or even the PC…) and/or they’re not going to stop with SIXAXIS as a controller design.

The only question left is if Sony is thinking of gaming applications. (Link takes you to source site; patent itself is available for download but requires subscription or going through ad-supported download).

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