Sony Patents Gesture Based Controls for Vita
Sure, you can use the ten buttons, the two analog sticks, the two multitouch touch pads or the SixAxis to control the PlayStation Vita, but what if you don’t want to touch your lovely new handheld? You could use your voice, or you could simply wave your finger.
We’ve discovered a patent for gesture based controls for a Sony Computer Entertainment portable that has an inbuilt camera. Recently published, but filed back in 2009, SCEI’s patent allows for people to interact with the handheld using their finger.
The patent initially describes the problems of having a device that can only be interacted with by using buttons or a touchpad, saying that “it is not easy to give an instruction to the information processing apparatus in a situation in which it is not easy to operate an operating member.”
The “invention” aims to solve this problem by using the device’s inbuilt camera to track a user’s finger. Therefore, if you move your finger clockwise, the pointer on screen will move clockwise:
What’s more, the camera doesn’t simply track your finger – it also tracks the distance from the Vita/device. This means that your finger is tracked in a 3D space, allowing for full control and the ability to interact by jabbing at the screen:
While most of the patent focuses on using one finger, one drawing does show five fingertips being tracked, suggesting more is possible:
Another drawing also shows how the finger tracking could be used in the game:
It is important to point out that the Vita is never directly named, and that the patent might never become a reality – but would you interact with your Vita using gesture based controls? Let us know in the comments below.
7 Responses to “Sony Patents Gesture Based Controls for Vita”
Fig. 15 looks like sperm swimming around… Two tailed sperm…
Perhaps this will become the premises of a new sony add focused on technological genetic like evolution…
Perhaps Sony’s creating a game that Sperm can play.
Interesting. I doubt this is Vita, though. Not sure the camera will be capable of the 3D tracking required for depth. Mind you, they did look at and pass up the opportunity of buying the tech which later became Kinect, so this is perhaps a patent resulting from that.
I guess this would become quite interesting if Microsoft ever try to implement finger tracking on Kinect…
It doesnt need a 3D camera to work – as the finger is so close to the camera it simply measures the relative size of the finger to see how far away it is.
hello …
interesting indeed & i like that lbp pix up there .. great work
cheers!
This sounds a lot like if you get the Vita you could use it to replace the PS3 Eye as a 3D camera to combat with Kinect with body language based gaming. This way they would not have to do a FW update to the PS3 or download a specific app on the XMB to get the same functionality.
This would also be another selling point for the Vita and would make the fact of its price point just fine with me…