It’s no secret that the Kinect is outselling the PlayStation Move by quite a fair margin, so Sony may be looking to come out with their own Kinect competitor that can actually sense depth and track subtle movements where the PS Eye cannot. A newly published patent has revealed that the company has begun work on a new 3D camera that could potentially be a part of the PlayStation 4.
Only just published, what’s most interesting about the patent is that is was originally filed last October – a full year after the Kinect launched and broke Guinness World Records for sales. Sony previously admitted they had looked into 3D cameras long before the Kinect was a reality, but decided against it in favor of a button-based peripheral – the PS Move. However, now that Move and PS Eye-creator Dr Richard Marks has published the new patent, it does certainly suggest that the company has once again started to look into such a system.
The patent says:
An invention is provided for affording a real-time three-dimensional interactive environment using a depth sensing device. The invention includes obtaining depth values indicating distances from one or more physical objects in a physical scene to a depth sensing device.
Continuing (emphasis added):
A system for providing a real-time three-dimensional interactive environment, comprising: a depth sensing device capable of obtaining depth values indicating distances from one or more physical objects in a physical scene to a depth sensing device…
The patent also suggests that the camera would use a system similar to the Kinect’s, where it sprays out infared to determine depth (watch this cool vid to see how):
wherein the depth sensing device is a depth camera using controlled infrared lighting
Along with the patent, some drawings were also included that show how depth would be recognized:
A Kinect-like camera for the PlayStation 4 would make a lot of sense – it’s too late to try to introduce another camera this gen, but with Microsoft sure to have a next-gen Kinect, Sony will need something to be able to compete against them with – which is why we included it on our PS4 Wishlist.
Would you like a PlayStation Kinect? Let us know in the comments below.
