Sony VR patent details 'obstacle avoidance' tech, brainwave applications

Sony has filed a new patent that underlines its potential research into a new VR device for PlayStation formats. The documents pertain to obstacle avoidance tech, brainwave mapping and more.

It follows these Sony VR patents filed back in May, which detail a head-mounted display device. The documents triggered a wave of PS4 head-set rumours at the time. The discovery of these new files lend new weight to rumblings around Sony's move for the VR space.

PushSquare reports that Sony's new VR patents relate to "Obstacle Avoidance Apparatus," and "Obstacle Avoidance Method." In short, the tech hopes to alert the head-set wearer whenever he or she is in danger of banging into objects within the play-space. Presumably, this is a health & safety measure to address fears of toppled furniture and the like.

Here's an attached image to set the scene:

The documents add that the tech and "camera or distance sensor " can calculate the distance between players and foreign objects within the play-space. If a player is too close to an object in the room, the patented tech will replicate it in the virtual game world, bringing it to your attention and helping you avoid a collision.

Elsewhere, the patents refer to “biological information” that can be mapped by the VR device, such as eye tracking, body temperature, sweat, brainwaves, pulse rate, cerebral blood flow and blinking. It sounds similar to prototype brain-controlled game interfaces out there just now.

Just look at Son of Nor's thought-based spell casting for one.

Via OPM.