As we creep nearer to a different era of PlayStation consoles, Sony is exploring potential additions to its controllers that would set it aside in an analogous approach to the DualSense with the PlayStation 5. In keeping with a brand new patent, that would embrace buttons that harden, or soften, in accordance to what’s occurring on display screen.
The patent software, which was filed in November 2024 with the World Mental Property Group (WIPO) and revealed in Might earlier this 12 months (and located by Cheat Occurs), particulars a number of totally different ways in which buttons on a controller can have their bodily properties modified. In a single, the controller makes use a magneto-viscoelastic elastomer that alters how a lot drive is required to push a button based mostly on surrounding magnets. One other method contains utilising fluid-filled membranes for a similar impact, however you’ll be able to in all probability think about why this won’t be an amazing thought for a controller’s longevity.
The patent goes on to explain another button impact the place a participant’s finger can sink into it, earlier than it hardens up across the finger afterwards. That is in all probability the strangest of the options, however may very well be used to simulate a number of situations the place your character is caught and requires extra drive to maneuver or launch. Whether or not you need your controller biting you is solely subjective, nonetheless.
Experiments like these are what finally led to the present DualSense controller, which makes good use of adaptive triggers to simulate numerous context-sensitive actions, resembling different hearth modes in Saros or the strain of an internet swing in Spider-Man 2.
With Sony anticipated to launch a brand new PlayStation in both 2028 or 2029, patents resembling these may give a sign of what could be included within the eventual DualSense successor. However, like a number of patents earlier than it, its submitting doesn’t in any manner imply that Sony will observe by way of with its designs.
