PSP World

Sony Files Patents for Touch Screen and Motion Sensing Hardware

In a patent application approved June 26, Sony has revealed details about a possible successor to the PSP. The two separate patents discuss a motion-sensing device that may function as a handheld gaming device or a contoller input with Wii-like capabilities.

One patent outlines a strange type of screen that contains “tactile pixels”, capable of being both stimulated by touch and providing physical feedback to the player. The highly-technical patent seems to describe a touch screen that touches you back!

“The device may comprise a case having one or more major surfaces; a touch screen disposed on one of the major surfaces, the touch screen; a processor operably coupled to the touch screen; and one or more tactile pixels disposed proximate the touch screen. Each of the tactile pixels includes an actuatable portion coupled to an actuator and a sensor. The actuator and sensor are coupled to the processor. The actuator is configured to actuate in response to instructions from the processor and the sensor is configured to generate signals as inputs to one or more programs executed by the processor when pressure is applied to the actuatable portion.”

The patent states that this technology could be used in a “game device, phone, portable media player, email device, web browser device or navigation device”. Since the current PSP is all of these things, it makes sense that this patent could provide clues about what the successor to the PSP will look and feel like.

The second patent of interest is for a handheld device that “recognizes gestures”. This could describe a component of a device that will include the tactile touch function covered in the first patent.

Both patents seem to point toward a multi-featured handheld device that takes input via touch screen, feeds tactile information back to the user, and recognizes motion as a form of input. In other words, this is what you would get if you crossed the three most popular electronic consume products: the Wii, the DS and the iPhone.