A recently discovered patent published by Sony Interactive Entertainment suggests the company is experimenting with the idea of charging controllers by sunlight.
Spotted by Tech4Gamers, the patent seems pretty straightforward — a controller with "photovoltaic elements" allowing it to absorb light from the Sun and power your pad with the electricity generated.
The DualSense PS5 controller features in the tech drawings as an example.
Theoretically, this would eliminate the need to plug your controllers in with a wire to charge, and could potentially mean they charge while in use, depending on where you're playing.
The PS5's official DualSense controller has an infamously short battery life, and it appears that this solution could go a long way to resolving that particular issue.
Obviously, as with all patents, this isn't indicative of any real-world product — at least, not yet. If Sony decides to develop this idea further, it's possible we could end up with pads that can charge up totally wirelessly just from exposure to sunlight.
It sounds like a fantastic idea on paper, though we'll leave it to Sony to figure out how to make it all work practically.
While it's probably years away, if it's happening at all, what are your thoughts on a solar-powered PlayStation controller? Open the curtains in the comments section below.
[source patentscope.wipo.int, via tech4gamers.com, thegamer.com]
Comments 49
How’s this gonna work? How many people play outside…
It would be cool, but I personally can't see it any time soon. I mean we don't even have solar powered TV remotes and they barely use any power.
Though I'm not sure why we don't now that I think about it.
Going to be a huge help for all the gamers playing in their parents basement and their man caves. 🙄
This would be an issue for me because I only play in pale moonlight
Lol what a nonsense... it would be much better to translate the trigger pulling and stick movement to recuperate energy back to the battery. Although controller weight would be significantly higher. Everyone who has disassembeled a dualsense before knows its tight in there. You can put a 4000mAh one in it with the same size as the original. I do this with every dualsense I have and had. Takes 2mins and costs 12€. Lasts for 10 hours of playtime.
Great news, some manufacturers already make solar powered remote controls, so I imagine adapting similar technology for controllers wouldn't be too challenging. Even if it just decreased charging time using conventional means, it's still a step in the right direction.
Ideally a tiny fusion reactor in each controller would mean never having to charge it... 😂
It'd be nice....if you're near a window with direct sunlight and don't mind cooking yourself while playing assuming your hands don't cover the sensors.
Then the other option is leaving it to visually degrade while it charges in sunlight.
Then imagine coming home and finding out it didn't charge because the weather turned.
This is great as a fringe option, because you won't beat just charging the damn thing normally, but if it was the only option you had? Nope. Plus it likely wouldn't be that cheap, and a more expensive way of charging an already expensive controller for what it is given how infamously s*** the battery is probably isn't gonna hit.
Plus, what PlayStation fans would buy this? We all know they don't see sunlight, PornHub reminds us yearly they are gamings biggest w******. You reckon they're going at the one handed rodeo on a windowsill?
@Balosi samsung have solar remote controls, other manufacturers do too. I know this because one came with my parents TV. It charges really well indoors.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but does solar power only work when outside or will natural sunlight coming through the window for example work too? I could see this as a usefull feature with a mobile phone for example and I'm supriced we don't have mobiles like that yet, although handheld gaming devices could benefit from this feature too when playing oudoors.
What an absolutely pointless waste of everyone's time and money. I genuinely can't think of any scenario where I would take my DualSense outside or place it by a window to charge.
Who on Earth is this aimed at???
I don't actually have an issue with the DualSense battery life (I don't have as much time for gaming as I used to) but I would like to have an easily removable battery instead of the built-in one.
Never been an issue for me. I have no capacity to put 8 hour gaming clips anymore. I guess 14 year old me would be pissed though
As I play in my homecinema cellar, well good luck getting sunlight into my "mancave" 😉🤣
1) Anyone playing a PS5 should find a USB port is more convenient than the sun for charging purposes.
2) Typically, leaving electronics in the sun is VERY bad for its battery lifespan and "paint" finish. So, unless this is just a plug-in external battery with a solar panel... Wait--
3) Just buy a solar panel external charger.
The battery of the dualsense itself never feels like an issue for me neither. Can we see a portal 2 patent please?
Sony really hit it out of the park with back to back useless patents. We recently had the AI that plays the game for you and now we have controllers that only work if you're outside where the console... Isn't.
Genius work.
@Haruki_NLI I can imagine instead of having one arm tanned like truck drivers you would have just your forearms tanned holding the controller in that beam of light coming in through the window while you battle with glare on the TV screen.
@SystemAddict that was my second thought. Maybe with the "panels" on the back of the portal so you can lay it upside down into a sunny place at home or anywhere to recharge it.
Because the article has mentioned solar charging, this has driven a lot of the comments to assume that this is what the patent is for.
Photovoltaic elements can be things like the light inside a room and the light from a TV, not just solar. So I think it is an ambient light low power harvester, and will be used to test if they can power controller LEDs separate from battery.
@Czar_Khastik aye just stick it outside on charge when your asleep
Never had any issue with the battery myself. 🤷🏻♂️
I live in the UK...
Just turn off the adaptive triggers and you'll get double the battery life you're getting with it on. I don't even like these triggers anyway, gets tiresome for long sessions. Touchpad could go too and give room to a bigger battery. Pretty much nothihg uses the touchpad as something more than 2 buttons.
@Kenobi42 it makes sense to be honest. We've using solar powered calculators for decades and remotes can't use much more power than them. A ps5 controller on the other hand, uses significantly more.
I absolutely detest the adaptive triggers. I have 4 DualSense controllers and they're all the same. There's a weird crunch when using the triggers unless that function is turned off.
And I also agree with you about the touchpad. I can't remember that last time I've ever used it or ever even thought that using it was a good idea.
My Samsung TV remote has a solar panel. I think it makes the built in battery last a lot longer.
@Balosi Ive got solar powered TV remote, a lot of samsung tv's have.
They should go full solar, controller and console. Set by the window and no electricity being used. Perfect. All that would be missing in wireless hdmi connections so we can get rid of cables everywhere.
Cool idea to extend battery life a bit. Our remote for the tv has it and hardly ever needs a charge.
The proof will be how efficient it is and so how long it extends battery life.
will wind stop the terrible stick drifts though?
Or here's a crazy solution - put a decent capacity battery in your controller - and make it user-replaceable when it starts to fail.
Sony unfortunately has a long history of making entirely useless patents - I'm sure they have a performance metric somewhere that tracks the number of patents they hold; and it'd be entirely unrelated to the number that are actually implemented.
And for those comparing this to tv remotes - the power budget for both are completely different. Those remotes use almost no power; and they're not used constantly under power drain conditions (so trickle-charging works well for them). A dual sense controller has a 5.9Wh battery - generally speaking that's good for about 5-6 hours of play (my experience); a 1m2 solar panel will generate about 4kWh per day (in direct sunlight).... so let's assume nearly the entire controller was photovoltaic cells... that'd be 0.01m2; so at best you would get 40Wh (which should be more than enough.... if your controller was sitting on your roof). Ambient light (say for example inside a house with blinds open) is going to generate significantly less power (likely less than 10-20% of direct sunlight) so that gets down to 4Wh per day.... but given that the controller is not flat and not likely to be optimally placed - it's more likely you'd get 2Wh per day max. So let's be generous - it'd take you 3 days of constant solar trickle-charging for every day of gaming (as you're not charging when you're actually covering the photovoltaics with your hand).... Also - if it's cloudy then that further reduces the effectiveness....My head is actually starting to hurt.
As I said up front - wouldn't it just be easier to put a much higher capacity battery in the controller? I know you can do it easily enough - and I'm guessing it would cost a lot less. [edit - you can buy a 4000mAh replacement battery on Amazon for AUD30 which would give you about 2.5x the battery endurance]. Get solar panels on your roof and charge your controller normally - it's likely a much better investment IMO than trying to make a controller solar-charging-capable.
Biggest woes of the controllers is the stick drift. I’m already two controllers down and I’m a light player.
Almost a decade of the issue now and no plan of a fix.
Pfff…. Microsoft is working on a new controller with a handheld nuclear fusion reactor in it. The battery lasts a really long time. Unfortunately everyone in the beta testing died of radiation sickness before getting to Act 2 in Baldur’s Gate 3. They’re still working out the kinks.
I lol'ed when i read this headline.
There are so many issues with this idea that i can't help but laugh. Oh push square... sometimes you try way too hard.
Can't wait for the 10 extra article follow ups trying to convince us this is a good idea or to buy it if it ever came out.
I play most of my games after work and the the sun has set...
I think a wind powered controller would be a better idea.
It’s a nice idea and I hope it works out but I have a Samsung to remote with a solar panel on and I’m forever charging it in the winter time
the constant charging, discharging while being used would be terrible for the battery and ruin it.
using a controller while charging is very bad for lithium ion batteries
@TurboTom there are no stupid questions. If you don’t know the answer it’s a valid question, and always better to ask and learn than assume you know
Yes solar power can work indoors but it’s usually for low power consumption devices like calculators or tv remotes. Video game controllers typically use more power than that, so it’s unlikely to fully power your controller. But it may be able to trickle charge it slowly to make recharging it less frequent, or perhaps power some specific functionality.
But honestly I think this patent is unlikely to ever come to fruition.
This is great, I love playing my Playstation in the garden!
@GusBH Is that the feature that makes if feel your actually pulling a trigger I can't stand that in Helldivers 2 how do you turn it off
If they don’t suffer from stick drift I might buy one
@themightyant
Thanks for the reply, yeah perhaps it could help power the LED lights or something like that. To be honest I don't seem to game as much as I used to do and I don't really have a problem with the battery capacity as it is. I have a long USB cable too which I can use to play and charge at the same time, but I dont often need to do that with my two Dualsense controllers.
@TurboTom I’m the same I have a long USB-C cable by my sofa i use to charge everything from phone, tablets and yes the PlayStation controller. Battery life has never bothered me either since I started doing that.
@themightyant
I do exactly the same, I have a really long USB cable ( must be around 3 meters or something like that ) and have it plugged into my wall next to the sofa to charge everything with such as my phone / ps5 controller etc.
What a stupid idea.. what are you meant to do leave your controller on the window sill and hope the sun comes out? And that it isn’t hot enough to melt your controller… How about they make the damn battery use replaceable! Like XBOX DO!!
@themightyant This is the way.
A lot of people in this article don't know how solar panels work they turn light into energy not just the sun all light is radiation
its 2025 and they can't make a controller that has a long battery life wtf
@Dampsponge a lot of people here didn't grow up using those calculators that were solar powered.
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