The first patent includes figures that look like a vertical grip controller with a thumbstick at the top, buttons splayed out on top of that, and a trigger on the other side nestled under the index finger. A hand strap pokes out over the side, but it’s the guts of the controller that show promise: Interlocking gears under the ‘grip’ expand and contract to give immersive feedback ‘capable of imparting a tactile sense to a user,” according to the patent.
The other patent is for tracking a user’s individual finger placement solely using the head mounted display (HMD), i.e. a headset. This would work differently than the current PSVR setup, which uses the PlayStation Camera to follow the position of Move controllers. In other words, we’d need a new HMD to take advantage of this design.
Whether these make it into a future Sony VR setup is anyone’s guess, but it’s worth noting that PSVR is leading the nascent high-end VR gaming market with over 2 million units sold.
