Sony's New Patents Give Us a Glimpse Into the Future the Company Is Thinking About
Sony has filed four new patents showcasing potential improvements to gaming experiences, including AI-powered accessibility features, autonomous bug fixing, advanced matchmaking systems, and turning the DualSense controller into a payment method.
Every so often we like to talk about company patents that get revealed and allow us to see the new directions companies are thinking of heading toward. Many times we don't see those same patents make it to market, at least not in the form they're initially presented. Either way, it's always interesting to see what technologies and improvements companies are working on, and in Sony's current case we're looking at four recently filed patents that show how the company is thinking about upgrading our gaming experience.
The first patent is designed to improve accessibility, with artificial intelligence learning the player's movement patterns and physical limitations through the controller. Then, if the model identifies that the player is having difficulty pressing a button all the way down or moving the joystick, the AI will compensate for their limitation and complete the command. While we're on the topic of AI-based patents, the second patent deals with AI that will monitor Sony's consoles, detect software bugs in real time, and autonomously write code that will be sent directly to the device to fix the bugs. This entire process will happen autonomously without any need for intervention from the user or customer service. The third patent is also AI-based and will serve as the foundation for a matchmaking system, where the artificial intelligence will analyze the player's skill level based on information from Sony's ecosystem like search history, purchases, and audio (and not just based on performance in that particular game) in order to match players with a higher compatibility level to one another. The fourth and final patent doesn't deal with artificial intelligence but rather discusses turning the DualSense controller into a payment method to which we can attach our credit card to make payments.
As mentioned, these are just patents that have been filed and it's not at all certain we'll see them become part of any product, as there's still a long process of implementation, testing, usability, and feasibility before the ideas behind the patents will be ready for market.