Today’s Best Discovery: Sony Wants To Patent a PS3 Move Controller That Gets Hot Or Cold

Kotaku- OK. My mind is blown. Sony published a patent this week for a video game controller that heats up or cools down as you're playing a game. It sounds kind of dangerous. And it sounds kind of awesome.

[PS3ROCKS]

I bet girls will like that. Lol

[blumatt]

Imagine them getting their "lips" stuck to it like on Dumb and Dumber. Lmao

[Blackdeath_663]

i like the bit where it says the controller would get cooler as you start to get sweaty hands. i sweat like fuck when playing competitively online or 2-player an automatically cooling controller is genius as far as i am concerned.

[Army_of_Darkness]

say your in a hot area like hell(controller heats up) or in a cold area like Alaska(controller gets cooler), or what if your near a secret treasure and your controller gets warmer as you get closer?! that would be pretty neat.

[Peppino7]

Controller explodes upon death in any game.

[Razmossis]

This won't happen, battery life/power simply won't allow it.

Plus, I'm sure as soon as the gimicky aspect of it wears off, people will be tired of getting sweaty hands and turn the feature off.

[SilentNegotiator]

Apparently no one is capable of seeing the big (or little) picture here.

Big picture: Sony wants to own the idea for temperature changing controllers (go back in time and tell people that controllers will shake in the future; they'll laugh at that, too).

Little picture: Sony is simply filing a patent of something put together by a tiny team of engineers, just as Nintendo, Microsoft, and hundreds of other companies do every day.

[fr0sty]

Sounds like quite the battery killer.

[jujubee88]

lol

[hennessey86]

Burn you if you do the game wrong :D or give you frost bite for invalidating a lap on gt5

[edgeofsins]

I could see for games like sorcery if you cast an ice spell the controller feels colder or if it is warm then you cast fire.

[AzaziL]

I'm thinking if it ever gets used (which i honestly doubt for at least the next decade), it'll be like how rumble is used, it'll reflect the environment your in. Running through the desert, it gets warm, run through the artic, it gets cold, that sort of stuff.

Of course an even more useful way would be to detect your body temp, if your getting too hot on a hot day, the controller cools you down, visa versa on a winter day.

[jerethdagryphon]

actually this indicates 3 things

sony isnt done with move tech

sony sees the need for further player involvment

sony is still on there game in designing interesting things

[TheUndertaker85]

I agree. While the patent itself might not be the next big thing it does show Sony still wants a future for the Move.

I hope that when Sony decides to announce PS4 they announce Move support for it at launch with a better camera. The Move tech is pretty solid right now but I couldn't ever help feeling that it would benefit more from having a better camera with it. A 720p or even 1080p camera for my PS3/PS4 would be nice and might potentially help those Move games more.

[SilentNegotiator]

Actually, it only indicates one thing:

They're trying to own the idea on game controllers changing temperatures.

They could transfer that to ANY controller.

[Hozi]

are you kidding me? they release the move not too long ago and you expect them to be done with it so easily?

they have to make back their dollars ya know. Move aint cheap.

[Relientk77]

I am trying to think the types of games this technology would work for. It could work for point and click games, when looking for certain items. The controller would be cold if you are far off, and hot if you are close.

[Anon1974]

Who knows if this will ever even see the light of day. I'd be interested to see how they think they'd use something like this, but I doubt this will ever hit the market. I remember back before the PS3 launched, Sony patented a system which would "sign" copies of your software onto your console so only your console could play those games. I remember Microsoft patented tech that would allow them to censor audio feeds in real time, presumably for use with XBL. This are just a couple of examples.

Still, it's nice to see they're playing around with different ideas. I'll never fault a company for trying out new tech.

[Soldierone]

When Drake is stuck in the snow in Uncharted, the controller will be cold. When Kratos is stuck in hell, the controller will be hot.

If someone reaches out and touches your character, the controller can be warmer.

Also warm and cold temps can also entice emotions in you. Along with that it can help change the gaming environment as if the controller is uncomfortable hot or cold, it will make you think much differently, possibly force you to make poor decisions to make the controller go back to normal.

[Relientk77]

I was thinking of that, when Nathan Drake is in the snowy locations it would get cold, then in the deserts it would get hot

[HammadTheBeast]

Survival/Horror.

[iamnsuperman]

The heat feedback would be interesting when shooting a weapon but it is just a gimmick and I see (if this was implemented) it being used as a gimmick like most non essential things

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

Think of it like the dual shock. Imagine a fire hazard, or even ubiquitous gunfire. A gimmick, but a gimmick can evolve to be a feature.

[Getowned]

I wish Sony said "We want to support PS Move more" because I have two vary dusty sets of move. I play The Fight once in a while but its a dust collecter.

This would be a cool feature, a built in mini A/C for sweaty hands :P , sounds like a killer on battery life though. lol

Devs still haven't used move at it's full potential yet :/

[Aghashie]

@ Getowned

Tell me about it. I have four move controllers, two navigation controllers, charging station, two handgun grips, one sharp shooter grip and many move supported games.

All of it collecting dust within many other things i dont use anymore.

Killzone 3 is the only reason i still have the camera on top of my tv. I have finished the game many times, but can't get tired of playing it with the sharp shooter. For anything else, my move controllers are just fancy and expensive paperweights.

[StrawHatPatriot]

How about if your playing NBA 2K and if the pressure is on your rookie in my player mode, the controls will go red to represent your player's nervousness, and if he's cool, calm, and composed, the controller goes cold.

[Blankman85]

Plot officially lost.

[NastyLeftHook0]

Too bad its not your bubbles.

[icewater85]

How about it's used on games like Sorcery. It gets hot when you use fire magic and cold when you use ice magic. It could also work on future games that use any kind of magic. Or it can reflect your environment.

[Soldierone]

I think it would be awesome to have when watching movies also. All though I think it would be easier to make a controller hot and not so easy to make it cold.

[ShadowKingx]

its get hot then cold then cold then hot, what the next things its goes ding.

[CanadianTurtle]

I think Sony has lost it.

Why waste money on such a gimmick that can only go "so far." Its not even worth making a quick buck with this.

[Belking]

I agree with this. Stop with all the extra hardware.

[edgeofsins]

It is patenting. It isn't going to be mass produced because it has a patent for it.

This could be very good for some games in the future if implemented right.

[specialguest]

Sony is patenting the idea, that's all. There are tons of patents out there that companies don't necessarily use. I'm sure Sony has a lot we've never seen yet. It's to protect the idea just in case they or a competitor use it. In this age of patent wars, you can never presume a silly idea can't come back and bite you in the future if some else owns it.

[mclean_514]

I think it would be neat in FPS. The more you shoot in a period of time the hotter the controller would get, just like a real weapon. But who knows if it would ever get used.

[MasterCornholio]

Thermal feedback in a controller.

First time i heard of this but im not sure on how useful the tech will be for games. I guess when your playing a game like Uncharted 2 in the train section in the beginning the controller could get cold and when your exploring the jungle it could get warm. But it seems like a gimmick to me more than anything.

[telekineticmantis]

The Dual Burn Controller.

[TCG_Returns]

Weird

[GraveLord]

And people called the PS Move a di**o?
This new one practically is one. Let's hope they include rumble this time :D

EDIT: This would actually be an awesome feature for the Dualshock 4. Instead of it being used in games, it would be cool to be able to control it whenever we want like in the winter, we can turn on the heat, in the summer, the cold.

[Oh_Yeah]

they're listening to someone with similar ideas as mine lol. next it'll be nature speakers, for example your in a ocean scene and the speakers squirt you with mists of water or a desert scene in which the fans within the speaker emit hot air, or a tornado scene where strong gusts of wind suck you back into your couch..etc.

[DanSolo]

Instead of a gimmick that will be cool (pun intended) for about 15 minutes, hows this for a reallllllllllllllllllllllllly obvious and actually useful idea............

PATENT A MOVE WITH ANALOGUE STICKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously..... it's a no brainer Sony!

[madpuppy]

I guess the best way to do that would be to use a peltier?

[GTRrocker666]

This sounds so cool

[Braid]

Imagine it's winter and snowing outside while you're sitting in your warm, warm room. Great time for gaming, right? But would you really want to touch something that gets "cold" in this situation? Contacting with something cold would be the last thing you'd want to do. Think about the absolute opposite situation, it's summer and you're sweating like an olympic runner in your room due to the unbearable hellish heat of the afternoon. Who'd want to keep holding a controller that actually makes you feel even worse when it gets hot? I know experimenting is good and all, but please use your resources on inventing something that has some reasonable, practicle function.

[awesomeperson]

It would probably have an option to turn on and off, like rumble does most of the time. That's if it ever sees the light of day - there are so many patents filed that never, ever, see the light of day - but are there 'just in case' or to stop competition doing the same thing.

[Bimkoblerutso]

I'm with you, dude. It really just baffles me. I adjust the temperature in my house if my hands are hot or cold while gaming. Why the hell would anyone want a technology that artificially induces uncomfortable hand temperature?

[awesomeperson]

Not the disagreer, but even if it did get introduced (which I highly doubt), it would most likely not be to a level which makes you uncomfortable by any means. It would more than likely be enough so its noticeable but not extreme, even better if you could choose how much you wanted its affect (like a volume slider).

Ah well, I'm all for trying new things, the only problem if it was ever introduced would be increased price and whatnot.

[nevin1]

This cant used in a DualShock4?

also, imagine playing madden in cold weather settings

[Kran]

not too hot now. :)

[josephayal]

auto clean is important

[LKHGFDSA]

That's really cool, and I'm glad to see Sony thinking outside the box. I've spent ages trying to think of new ideas for the controller but I never thought of this.

Edit: Surprised at the lack of positive feedback, especially considering how you idiots went crazy for the Microsoft projector thing which didn't make any sense.
I think this feature would be great, imagine fatal frame and you feel a chill before a ghost comes out. or a game where it's outside and windy then you pick up a weapon and the controller gets slightly warmer.
Combined with force feedback/rumble I'd say this is practicably a natural progression. (Though I'm imagining it for a Dual Shock rather than the Move.)

I mean really, haven't any of you been playing a game, using a gun and didn't realize it was heating up?
I've had that happen heaps of times.

[SSJBen]

I think many is getting the wrong idea here in the controller being extremely hot or cold. The modules on the controller will heat up, but it would be subtle (as in, warm). While when it is cold, it's a sense of coolness, not ice cold.

Read the entire patent details before making assumptions and stop over reacting.

[pupa]

I would love them to make one that really Dual Shock you when you are hit, only a few thousand volts will do. (wink)

[Thepcz]

...

[ChickeyCantor]

Exactly what I was thinking. Hypocritical to the max.

[hazardman]

I just don't see the use for it. I understand some people think its gonna make a difference, but I just don't see it making that much of an impact in game play! Call me old school,but I just want a regular controller and a Great game to play!!

[Cam977]

Well, this would be a very handy addition for my PS3 controller to have!

[Tzuno]

owww yeahh this should massively improves the games quality. Pfff, ohh!!! Sony are you hurt in the head? Do tell us please.

[TalesFromTheBud]

They just don't want to let the PiiMote die do they?

[Thepcz]

i dont think they can patent the idea of a controller changing temp.

the only thing they could patent is the method/technology that enables the controller to change temp.