A patent filed by Sony last month would allow players to use items such as bananas and oranges in place of actual controllers, basically turning everyday objects into inexpensive game peripherals. While Sony’s patent uses bananas and oranges specifically, the idea is that any “non-luminous passive object being held by a user” could take the place of an actual game controller. A PS Camera would take a picture of the object in the player’s hands allowing it to be used to control the game. Theoretically, this would work for games using motion controls, but Sony is even looking into ways that buttons could be mapped to certain areas of the banana!
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An image from the patent can be found below. The rest of the patent can be found right here.
The patent goes on to detail ways that multiple items (or fruits) could be used by games to simulate in-game motions. The patent refers to this as a “Two-Object Controller,” and cites the possibility of using two oranges to control a racing game where “moving both of the oranges forward or backward may correspond to an accelerate and brake command respectively.”
All in all, this seems like a pretty wild idea! Video game controllers can get expensive, and the idea of being able to use household items in place of one isn’t the worst idea in the world. This could prove to be a practical concept, or one that just might be fun for a specific party game collection, such as Nintendo’s Wii Sports. It would be pretty funny to watch a roomful of people using different fruits to control in-game actions, and it’s not hard to imagine it being a lot of fun!
Of course, it’s worth noting that patents aren’t always indicative of a company’s future plans. Just because Sony filed for this patent, it doesn’t mean that PS5 users will be able to use bananas to control Dark Souls within a few short months. It simply means that Sony is looking into ways of making the idea work. It sounds like an ambitious concept, but PlayStation fans will just have to settle for their DualSense controllers, for the time being!
What do you think of Sony’s banana controller concept? Do you think it could work? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
