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 2023, however was issued final week, and is described as “designs and strategies for a recreation controller”.
Based on the patent’s description and accompanying photos, the controller would have a big touchscreen protecting most of its high floor, the place the buttons would normally go.
The concept is that gamers would be capable of customise the place the D-Pad, sticks or motion buttons must be positioned on the controller, to finest go well with 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 concept, this might imply if the participant was taking part in a easy platform recreation, they might substitute all of the buttons with a single massive soar button. Or, in the event that they had been taking part in a recreation that solely required a D-Pad or a left stick, they might select to take away one and make the opposite bigger.
“Typically [conventional] controllers adhere to an identical 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 current designs stands out as the fastened configuration. By the use of instance, a set format could also be too small, or too massive, for a consumer. Equally, a set format might not be comfy to a consumer. Producers usually don’t veer from format or controller dimension to scale back value. As consequence, controllers might embrace 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 dimension.
“One other downside of typical controllers stands out as the fastened nature of enter controls. For instance, a controller solely has sufficient house to incorporate a directional pad and joystick, and every component is normally situated in a special location.
“On account of dimension of bodily management components, recreation controls could also be restricted. As well as, inclusion of controls can enhance controller dimension. There exists a necessity and a want to permit for enhancements and modifications to recreation controllers.”
One potential subject 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 strain 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 could probably be capable of 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 just isn’t essentially affirmation that the thought will really grow to be a product sooner or later.
