In exciting news that has the potential to change home entertainment as we know it, Sony has just filed paperwork for a patent that shows the company is looking to bring haptic feedback to more than just video games.
The patent shows Sony is working on a system to automatically generate haptic feedback to games and other forms of entertainment like music and movies.
Back when Sony originally debuted the original DualShock controller, it was one of the first controllers to have vibration features built in, and not only did it go on to become the best-selling gamepad of all time, but it also was integral in vibrating controllers, becoming standard for console gaming.
The latest controller from Sony, the PlayStation 5 DuelSense, saw a massive jump forward with the included haptic feedback feature that had coil actuators in the palm grips and feedback for the adaptive triggers.
The latest patent filed is for a device that consists of detection, receiving, and haptic generation modules. These modules will then sync with a media device to decide on the level of vibration that the haptic generation module should produce.
In the filing, Sony explains how users could clip a vibrating module to their gamepad or another input device or even use a smartphone paired with the system to experience haptic feedback.
Sony described this technology’s potential for VR and stressed that this would make it possible to generate haptic feedback for media that doesn’t already have it programmed in.
The patent doesn’t go into much detail about how this would work with movies and music. Still, it’s safe to presume that when it comes to music, there would be pulses for base drops, and films should generate haptic vibrations to complement explosions and gunshots – as an example.
It’s worth noting that this patent is one of many filed this year by Sony, with other notable mentions being a patent to let players smell their PlayStation 5 games and a controller that could emulate temperature changes in-game.
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