Sony has obtained a US patent for a particular controller with a touchscreen that lets gamers select the place the buttons ought to go.
The patent was filed again in February 2013, however was issued final week, and is described as “designs and strategies for a recreation controller”.
In response to the patent’s description and accompanying pictures, the controller would have a big touchscreen overlaying most of its prime floor, the place the buttons would often go.
The thought is that gamers would be capable to customise the place the D-Pad, sticks or motion buttons ought to be positioned on the controller, to greatest swimsuit their private style, accessibility wants or what most closely fits every particular recreation.
It seems that gamers also can select to resize the buttons and even take away some buttons altogether for sure video games.
In principle, this might imply if the participant was enjoying a easy platform recreation, they might substitute all of the buttons with a single giant leap button. Or, in the event that they had been enjoying a recreation that solely required a D-Pad or a left stick, they might select to take away one and make the opposite bigger.
“Usually [conventional] controllers adhere to an analogous management interface of getting a directional pad on one aspect of the controller and buttons on the opposite aspect of the controller,” the patent description reads.
“One of many drawbacks of present designs stands out as the mounted configuration. By the use of instance, a set structure could also be too small, or too giant, for a person. Equally, a set structure will not be snug to a person. Producers sometimes don’t veer from structure or controller measurement to scale back value. As end result, controllers might embody button configurations for hand sizes that don’t accommodate all gamers.
“There exists a want for recreation controllers to permit for various configurations, and accommodate hand sizes with out having to customise or manufacture controller measurement.
“One other disadvantage of standard controllers stands out as the mounted nature of enter controls. For instance, a controller solely has sufficient area to incorporate a directional pad and joystick, and every factor is often positioned in a unique location.
“On account of measurement of bodily management parts, recreation controls could also be restricted. As well as, inclusion of controls can improve controller measurement. There exists a necessity and a want to permit for enhancements and modifications to recreation controllers.”
One potential problem with the patent design is that of the Turbo Contact 360, a third-party controller launched for 8-bit and 16-consoles within the Nineties. This changed the D-Pad with a contact pad to scale back stress on the participant’s thumbs, however resulted in gamers by chance transferring their character when naturally ‘resting’ their thumb on the contact panel.
Sony‘s patent mentions that the touchscreen would have a stress sensor and a warmth sensor to “detect situation of the enter floor”. It’s not clear whether or not this implies easy on/off sensors or sensors with a various diploma of sensitivity, but when it’s the latter it might doubtlessly be capable to decide the distinction between a thumb resting on the controller and a thumb urgent down on it.
As ever, the choice to use for and purchase a patent for an thought isn’t essentially affirmation that the thought will truly grow to be a product sooner or later.
