It seems like Sony is fully in the swing of researching and developing new technology for the virtual reality space. The company has said nothing of a successor to its PlayStation VR hardware, but we can presume it's on the way. At the very least, we now know Sony's engineers are right in the midst of making much improved controllers for use in VR.
As reported by UploadVR, Sony has published a new research article all about finger-tracking controllers, and they've released a short video to demonstrate the tech. We've embedded it above, and it's well worth a watch. Essentially, these prototype controllers have sensors that can detect which of your digits are resting on the grip and which aren't, estimating what you're doing with your hand. It works in a similar way to Valve Index's controllers, and allows for far more dextrous motions in VR games.
This research follows a patent discovered earlier this year which also discusses the use of finger-tracking controllers. At this point, it's safe to assume PSVR 2, or whatever it's called, will be making use of these impressive new inputs. PS Move wands have just about got the job done, but these controllers will be tailor made for virtual reality, and should make for much more engaging interactions when you don the headset.
What do you think of all this? Are you impressed by what's presented here? Don't make any rude gestures in the comments section below.
[source dl.acm.org, via uploadvr.com]
Comments 16
The PS Move controllers are both insanely expensive and completely outdated so Iād love to see an improved controller next gen that fully showed off the potential of the kit.
Astro Bot 2 with dual hand controls, you heard it first here.
If they could pull off these type of controller and a cordless headset (or at least just a box that attaches to your belt), that would be amazing!
Now something like this would increase immersion, allow much finer control and possibly temp me into actually investing in PSVR. That said, it could be great for non-VR games too.
It's pretty neat, but I'll probably never buy another VR headset. I get really motion sick, and it really hurts my eyes and face with my glasses.
Not to mention it's unplayable in the summer time. Waaaaaaaay too friggen hot to have one of those on in the desert! No way man.
@Stragen8 Just give me one with a cable! I don't want the battery to jack up the price, increase the weight and limit the graphical fidelity because the battery tech isn't powerful enough. If it's one simple cable, plug and play, it should be enough of an improvement already.
This would be amazing. I've always said that the more "mundane" actions like opening drawers are elevated to an extreme level thanks to the interactivity of PSVR. This would take things even further.
@Octane Yeah, I think a nice, single, plug-and-play cable would be fine. The PS5's hardware design should give us a rough idea of what they're planning because I imagine there will be a port on the front. There should be, anyway!
Amazing. If VR second wave can do this with even sharper visuals, portability/lighter and wireless... It'll be the arrival of an age of VR. Fingers crossed.
PSVR Half-Life: Alyx confirmed.
@get2sammyb PSVR uses two HDMI 1.4 IIRC (because I don't think PS4 could even make use of the 2.0, which was released just before it came out); even HDMI 2.1 is already four years old, so I expect a new version coming soon, and the PSVR2 may utilise it. Still, 2.1 is plenty of improvement over 1.4; with 5 times the bandwidth, and 4 data channels instead of 3. They may stick with the dual HDMI cable approach, but really, that shouldn't be an issue if there are two HDMI ports on the front as well.
This probably causes less lag than streaming it from the system to the headset as well.
King Xerxes had a go @ 4:30
This is pretty neat but...I can turn on finger tracking in my Oculus Quest right now as an experimental feature and it doesn't require any controllers. It's pretty impressive to watch your virtual hands move in real time while holding nothing. The move controllers feel unbelievably dated, so there's a lot of room for improvement, but I'd like Sony to improve on or refine what others are doing.
@oldschool1987 š¤š» I hope so. Just been replaying half life 2 and both the episodes
It does look cool but I got really bad motion sickness from playing RE7 on PSVR š
Soon enough we'll have VRChat on ps5
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