Sony is not satisfied with the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, but has also filed a new patent that would enhance the gaming experience with a controller that can change its temperature.

The patent was made public last week by Sony Interactive Entertainment and is simply titled “Controller”. You can see the detailed description and diagrams here, but we will try to summarize the essence and how it could work in a future version of the DualSense controller:

The new controller patent starts by describing the basic problem it wants to solve – the rigidity of the plastics used in current video game controllers. Sony wants to change this by incorporating an “elastically deformable elastic member” into the controller, which would provide greater displacement and sensitivity to the player’s touch and input, to improve the haptic feedback provided by the controllers.

The interesting part is a bit deeper, and describes the patented mechanism’s ability to “present the material of a virtual object in a game space to the user as a haptic sensation, present the temperature of the virtual object as a warm/cold sensation or the like”, which implies that this hypothetical future controller could not only give physical sensation to players of in-game objects (this would be great for VR too), but also give them the feeling of hot or cold environments in real time. Imagine swinging a fire-imbued sword or an ice spell in an RPG and physically feeling a (hopefully mild) warm or cold sensation in the moment, or feeling the difference between the scorching sun of a desert environment and the frigid night.

Of course, filing a patent does not mean that Sony is actively planning to apply the technologies described in it, but the possible possibilities are exciting and we would love to see these features in future controllers.

Source: Press Start