Every single gamer out there has had a moment when they were busy playing a game, put their controller down for a minute and then the next thing they know, six hours have passed, and they realize that the game wasn’t even paused. Thanks to PlayStation, that might be a thing of the past,
SegmentNext has reported that Sony has filed for a new patent to detect when you put your controller down and take a break so that your PlayStation can automatically pause a game for you. The documents also revealed that this seems to be a software patent instead of a hardware one, meaning players won’t need to buy a new controller to experience this convenience.
A summary of the patent document states:
Currently when a user puts down a game controller, the game does not know if the user is away or simply not responding. Present principles make it possible for the game system or the game to determine whether the user has abandoned the game or simply is on a short break so that the simulation system can take immediate action without waiting for the elapse of an AwayFromKeyboard timer.
Aside from the pure convenience factor of this patient, it will also help reduce the power consumption of PlayStation consoles when players step away.
Sony aims to achieve this by having your PlayStation utilize the camera and microphone to predict a player’s intention. It’s yet to be known if players will be given the option to opt out of this feature, but this should be fine, judging from Sony’s past.
Source: SegmentNext