A recently discovered Sony patent suggests that the tech giant is preparing a much more advanced version of its PlayStation VR headset.
The patent was filed to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in February and made public last week. Most notably, the document points to a wireless headset that connects via Bluetooth.
This would mark a major improvement over the original PlayStation VR, which has a variety of cables that can prove frustrating to manage. With the PlayStation 4 Pro, in particular, you have to switch around the PS VR cables each time you want to play a non-VR game in HDR — a tedious process when HDR is one of the main selling points of the 4K-capable PS4 console.
Additionally, the patent details a triple built-in camera setup, LEDs and motion detection technology, which would all, in theory, help with player tracking.
Further, the headset is said to feature a built-in power supply, microphone and its own video/audio signal source. This means that no external headphones would need to be plugged in since audio could be fed into your ears through the built-in speakers.
In terms of features, the patent outlines a “transparent mode” that would allow the user to see certain parts of the real-life environment. While that may seem to be counterintuitive to creating a sense of immersion, it appears to be intended for use in augmented reality apps.
Finally, the patent makes note of a “holographic mode” that would let users play games in 3D.
Given that this is a patent, there’s no guarantee that this particular iteration of the PlayStation VR will ever see the light of day. As such, it remains to be seen when Sony might introduce a new PS VR.
Overall, Sony has remained quiet about its future plans for PlayStation VR, beyond confirmation in April that the PlayStation 5 will support the headset in some capacity.
However, now that Sony has confirmed the PS5 will release in holiday 2020, it’s likely that a new model would be saved for that console.
It’s worth noting that another recently discovered Microsoft patent suggests that the tech giant’s upcoming Project Scarlett Xbox console may have its own VR component.
Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office Via: LetsGoDigital
