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Sony Patents Power Glove-Like Motion Controller For PlayStation VR (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: With so much of the VR buzz revolving around Oculus, HTC and Google lately, it would be easy to forget that Sony has its own competitor coming, called PlayStation VR. And now, as new patents have revealed, the Japanese gaming giant could have a nifty trick up its sleeve, so to speak. It looks like Sony could developing what some could consider a spiritual successor to the Power Glove, that classic late 80s peripheral for the Nintendo Entertainment System. A diagram pulled from the recent patent filing shows this glove's implementation is straight-forward. However, Sony's glove is not going to be bulky like the Power Glove was. The documents also refer to hand flexor sensors that indicate a level of precision tracking at the fingertip level, as well as some sort of cloud network processing offload.
>> documents also refer to hand flexor sensors that indicate a level of precision tracking at the fingertip level
I believe rule 34 applies here.
Now when I raise my middle finger in a game, I get banned. Wonderful. Just what I wanted.
Now you're playing with power!
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Seriously. When an idea is so clearly developed that they've made movies involving the use of it, how can a corporation even think of patenting it? This is ridiculous.
I'm not even sure that there are grounds for patenting particular implementations of the glove. The idea of building a glove with electronics to measure e.g. finger bend and pressure is out there in the public domain -- there are dozens of ways to implement it and NONE of them should be patentable, not unless they contain a truly unique invention that is patentable in its own right for e.g. measuring the bend. But I'm not seeing much of that.
This is just trolling. Next up -- Sony patents a socket that can be inserted in the human brain so one can play the game without any controller at all. Oh, wait, that too was invented by SF authors (plural), e.g. William Gibson. Maybe they should just put Gibson on retainer.
rgb
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
Will all this Sony VR tech work with my Aibo? Because that's the only thing in my home that's still interested in Sony.
Yeah, this is kind of like claiming you've invented a functional FTL engine and then, instead of patenting the engine, you try to patent the idea of going faster than light. It's ridiculous. But that doesn't mean that they're not going to be granted a patent for it. It happens all the time.
Everyone loves the Power Glove. It's so BAD.
Lawyers, and idiot lawmakers who have been handing over increasingly stupid laws allowing for the protection of "intellectual property", even for things which are so well documented in popular culture as to be more or less obvious.
I'm with you, in the last 30 years, who can't envision this exact product, and who hasn't been expecting another iteration to come along?
Updating the technology doesn't change that the specific "invention" is really widely known.
When the US government is pushing for greater rights of IP holders, because they're on the payroll, patenting this shit is even more lucrative than ever ... it's more rent seeking by multinational corporations handed over to them by governments who somehow think this helps anybody except the multinational corporations.
The dystopian future, as envisioned by the cyberpunk authors who envisioned the dystopian future, becoming the dystopian future. Sony patenting this is almost meta in its absurdity.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Yet-another-gimmick device. Where is the killer app, let alone the apps?
Evaluation of Motion Controller:
[x] Fad
[x] Device
[x] Hype train
[x] Lacks apps
[x] Consumers (generally) don't give a fuck
[ ] Ship it!
So how's the sales of the PlayStation Move working out?
"It's so bad."
Does the movie "Minority Report" count as prior art?
What matters is entirely about what they are trying to patent. Chances are they aren't making any sort of strong claim and just want to patent their specific mechanism as a glove, which is, potentially, novel. If they do try to claim too much, either the patent application gets rejected, or the court decides it's silly whenever it comes to trial. Nothing new about that. Since TFA doesn't state what is being claimed, we can just speculate.
Similar to Microsoft's Kinect. Are you bitching about that too?
When an idea is so clearly developed that they've made movies involving the use of it, how can a corporation even think of patenting it?
Because movies don't tell you how to build the fucking thing.
I'm not even sure that there are grounds for patenting particular implementations of the glove. The idea of building a glove with electronics to measure e.g. finger bend and pressure is out there in the public domain -- there are dozens of ways to implement it and NONE of them should be patentable, not unless they contain a truly unique invention that is patentable in its own right for e.g. measuring the bend. But I'm not seeing much of that.
Try clicking the link in the summary. Those nice little pictures they show depict a not-Power Glove. In fact, no glove at all. Take a look.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Even if Sony made something awesome and light years ahead of anyone else, I can't possibly stomach the idea of buying something from a company that constantly proves it not only doesn't give a shit about clients or customers, but chooses to screw them over.
"Because movies don't tell you how to build the fucking thing."
To be fair, neither do most American patents either.
Seriously. When an idea is so clearly developed that they've made movies involving the use of it, how can a corporation even think of patenting it? This is ridiculous.
You do realize that they use CGI in movies, right? They don't actually invent the stuff in reality. There's a big damn difference between imagining "X" would be really cool and actually figuring out a way to do it.
I suppose you don't think the Wright brothers deserve credit for the first manned, powered, heavier than air, controlled flight either. Daedalus and Icarus, Ezekiel's Chariot and magic carpets preceded them in literature.
I'm not even sure that there are grounds for patenting particular implementations of the glove. The idea of building a glove with electronics to measure e.g. finger bend and pressure is out there in the public domain -- there are dozens of ways to implement it and NONE of them should be patentable, not unless they contain a truly unique invention that is patentable in its own right for e.g. measuring the bend. But I'm not seeing much of that.
It depends on how they are doing it, doesn't it? The patent system annoys the hell out of me, but if they have a unique way of doing it, they they certainly desire a patent for it.
This is just trolling. Next up -- Sony patents a socket that can be inserted in the human brain so one can play the game without any controller at all.
WTF!?! If they come up with this, then they damn well should be able to patent it.
Oh, wait, that too was invented by SF authors (plural), e.g. William Gibson. Maybe they should just put Gibson on retainer.
No. It was imagined by countless Sci-Fi authors. I've yet to read a story about it where they actually gave a working model of how it was done. Just some very generalized way in how it might work, along with a bunch of assumptions about much needed other tech already being in existence.
It's so bad.
Similar to Microsoft's Kinect. Are you bitching about that too?
Not since they decided to make it optional for the XB One.
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Seriously. When an idea is so clearly developed that they've made movies involving the use of it, how can a corporation even think of patenting it? This is ridiculous.
In determining the validity of a patent, a reference qualifies as prior art "for everything it teaches". So, for example, Johnny Mnemonic qualifies for the concept of manipulating virtual objects with your hands in free space, and you couldn't get a patent claim that said "A method of manipulating virtual objects, comprising translating positions of a user's hands into a virtual environment." But JM doesn't teach how to do it, and if your patent claim goes more into the specific details, then you can get a patent on those details.
For a similar example, H.G. Wells' story is prior art for the concept of a machine that travels through time. But you can't build one using it, can you? If someone figures out how to make a working time machine, shouldn't they be able to get a patent on their implementation?
I'm not even sure that there are grounds for patenting particular implementations of the glove. The idea of building a glove with electronics to measure e.g. finger bend and pressure is out there in the public domain -- there are dozens of ways to implement it and NONE of them should be patentable, not unless they contain a truly unique invention that is patentable in its own right for e.g. measuring the bend. But I'm not seeing much of that.
That's the key. "A motion controller" is no more patentable than "a time machine", but "a motion controller, comprising a glove, and [patentable innovation]" is.
Additionally, in this case, it's just a patent application, not a patent, and there are many reasons to believe that the claims will be significantly narrower if and when this patent gets issued, some years from now.
They could patent the components used, the type of digital data sent back, the software clean-up required, the fabrics used. Like a system of fibre-optic cables, light sensors, ADC converters with a wi-fi/bluetooth interface.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Fairly sure this was first described in the Perry Rhodan space novels in the 1960s.
Which means it's a German invention.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Yeah, no porn / adult-entertainment possibility there, I'm sure.
-Styopa
Power glove coming back?
I said iCombine might be a email harvesting scam once.
I was. Motion Gesture are idiotic for a few reasons:
* Invisible interfaces are unintuitive. What are all your options? How "far" do I have to "push" before it is acknowledge? The fundamental problem is that the _lack_ of tactile feedback makes the Kinnect retarded -- this is the same reason "virtual" hologram keyboards never took off. There is a reason we still have physical keyboards -- they just work and there is no guessing games involving "did I press then button?"
* Arm fatigue due to unnecessary strain on holding the arms up.
* Gamepads don't have the disadvantages mentioned above. Everyone on a console already knows (or quickly learns) how to use a gamepad. There is nothing fancy to remember. Gamepads are _way faster_ to use then some dumb motion or voice input.
* Making it mandatory to prop up a dumb tech is still dumb.
So yes the Kinnect is just as dumb as Sony's Move. Customers aren't _that_ stupid. They know a gimmick when they see one.
well.
you think that the patent actually describes anything about how to make their glove or how it _actually_ works? HAHAHAH HAHA HAH AHAH AH HAAHAH H AH AH AH AH AH.
look, if you want to look at powerglove patents, various methods of doing the sensors and such, you need to go back to the '80s. the mattel powerglove didn't spring out to existence out of nothing. lots of research and expired patents related to that, covering most of the ways you could do it.
if they have made a new nanomaterial or whatever flex sensors, they should patent those - not the glove.
sony is just patenting generic vr glove stuff to have as ammunition.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I'm not buying unless it looks and works like this: http://vignette4.wikia.nocooki...