TECH NEWS – A Sony patent claims that artificial intelligence coupled with hardware and other systems can make games more accessible to the visually impaired.

A new Sony patent suggests that artificial intelligence can be used to make games more accessible to the visually impaired. Video games are becoming more accessible in several ways. The Japanese company appears to be adding a new way to make the medium more accessible to more gamers.

Sony continues to file new patents to improve its technology in all areas. The latest patents include MMO server technology, a game flavour system and a unique PlayStation controller. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S bridge the gap between gaming and disabled gamers, while the Xbox’s adaptive controller is widely praised.

Furthering Sony’s accessibility efforts, a patent explores ways to make games more digestible for the visually impaired.

A new patent from Sony suggests that future games could include an “on-demand accessibility system”. This will provide audio illustrations of certain scenes for the visually impaired. This system can be activated by different modules that provide feedback on the game. The modules include an action description module. Also, scene description, colour placement, graphic style and acoustic effect designation. By combining different feedbacks connected to the DualSense controller, on-screen actions can be described to the player with captions. This new system can give visually impaired players a more accurate picture of what is happening than describing individual scenes in the game.

In order for the PS5 system to describe things accurately, a neural network, a component system encoder-decoder and memory are used in the process. Sony’s DualSense uses data such as the player’s movements, frame changes, button presses, and audio signals played through the built-in speaker. Based on the language of Sony’s patent, this new system can be used in movies, TV shows and music. As Sony has made several considerations in this patent, open-world games have also been considered.

Given the amount of content in open-world titles, such as Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Forbidden West or Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding, the access system does not necessarily apply to the genre.

Some modern games have subtitles. This on-demand accessibility system can also benefit non-subtitled games. This patent could suggest that PlayStation games could become more accessible in the near future. But implementation could take some time. Part of the process is to train the neural network to provide the correct feedback to players. As PlayStation explores features for current and future platforms, the hardware of the next console and controller could provide even more possibilities.

Source: Hochmarketing.org