Sonyhas submitted an all-new patent that leverages a device’s baseline haptic vibration motors to communicate various messages to its user. The latest in a long line of the company’s patent listings, this particular use case offers some interesting functionality, going so far as to implement a relatively simple encryption system to offer a secure communication channel.
Over the past couple of months and years,Sonyhas come up with a whole slew of innovative patents and hypothetical device descriptions, most of them being fairly interesting and potentially niche-defining once fully realized. This particular patent describes a special line of communication that could be established between two separate devices, and which would be propagated via their haptic vibration motors.
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Whereas the patent itself makes no direct reference to any specific device or gamepad,DualSense’s haptic controller featureswould be a perfect match for the functionality described therein. According to the document, controllers in question would need to be able to communicate with one another (and potentially even third-party devices) through a series of haptic queries and responses, as well as being able to encrypt and decrypt messages that are being sent out or received, respectively.
Though theSony DualSense was underutilized in 2021, the company is clearly looking into ways that it could use its advanced haptic capabilities in ways that most users would probably have never come up with. Though the patent is certainly applicable to DualSense itself, which is likely to be Sony’s platform of choice for such features, it’s also worth pointing out that the same approach could likely be applied to a variety of other gadgets, such as smartphones.
Most often paired with the PlayStation 5, theDualSense controller had the biggest launch monthof any contemporary gamepad, making it a ubiquitous choice for gamers across the globe. The fact that it can also be used on PC with most of its features intact has made it more interesting to a greater number of people than would otherwise be the case, though relatively few games have fully and properly implemented its advanced haptic and progressive trigger features.
Interesting as Sony’s patent plans might be, not everything is going swimmingly with its flagship hardware. Namely,PlayStation VR2’s major drawbackwas just revealed, confirming that the new headset would not be compatible with the original PlayStation VR gamers. Naturally, this doesn’t necessarily reveal much of anything about Sony’s haptic communication patent and plans for future hardware and software, but it does underline the notion that total cross-compatibility is not to be taken for granted.
