Sony patented a 'deformable elastic' controller that heats up in your hands, and I can't say I'm in love with the idea
First reported by Exputer(opens in new tab), Sony has published a new controller patent(opens in new tab) that solves perhaps the greatest problem in gaming: «Controllers used for such purposes as gaming typically include materials that are relatively difficult to deform such as plastics.» When I snapped a plastic panel off my DualShock 3 in 2014 after dying to the Belfry Gargoyles in Dark Souls 2 for the 12th time, my issue absolutely was that my controller wasn't «deformable» enough.
The solution, naturally, is «a controller that includes a sensor using an elastically deformable elastic member, and this sensor detects user's contact with or deforming action of the elastic member and outputs an electric signal based on the detected contact or deforming action in question.»
Essentially, the patent seems to be proposing that the signature protruding grips of a PlayStation controller be made out of a reshapable elastic material. The document vexingly calls this new feature an «elastic member,» and the new construction would theoretically deliver better haptic feedback like controller rumble or… temperature changes?
«The shape or hardness of the portions of the elastic members (grips) changes in response to a process performed by the information processing apparatus such as a game, which makes it possible, for example, to present the material of a virtual object in a game space to the user as a haptic sensation, present the temperature of the virtual object as a warm/cold sense, or the like.»
A controller that could get hotter in your hands as you enter a lava level or take fire damage. I don't mean to be a downer, but my hands already get sweaty enough after a long play session. This isn't even the most bewildering
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