We’ve all been there when using a VR headset; after a certain amount of time, we just need to take it off and reduce that chance of needing to lay down and have a glass of water.
Motion sickness has gone hand-in-hand with VR for as long as anyone can remember, even going as far back as Nintendo’s Virtual Boy back in 1995. But as advancements in technology has come at a near-instant pace with 1080p screens with 60FPS on each lens, there’s been efforts to try and reduce the sickness.
Bring in Sony’s effort, seemingly working on a method of trying to make sure that the player will be able to play Crash Bandicoot VR and Ridge Racer in VR without having to reach for the bathroom.
Here’s just what the patent entails, and what it could mean for a future PS VR peripheral.
A PSVR Trooper
Virtual Reality is all about immersion; feeling like you’re there, feeling like you’re in danger or about to rain down the beats to a music track. But usually around the 15-minute mark, you start to feel disorientated and wanting to sit down.
Thanks to The GamePost, a patent has been discovered where a component of the PS VR headset will be able to control the direction and the angle of whatever the images are displaying to the user.
From what the patent shows, it seems as though an attachment will clamp onto the front of the headset, and will attempt to work with the game and the OS in reducing any potential motion sickness.
This could be huge for a majority of players out there; surveys have suggested that over 75% of players in VR experience some kind of motion sickness, so this could be a fantastic selling point if this came to be implemented.
READ MORE: Will the PS5 have VR?
A Feature for PS5?
Of course, the patent could just be an idea that Sony want to claim as their own, for the ‘just in case’ scenario. Many patents are held onto companies as a way of making sure their competitors cannot design something similar.
But PS VR has been a surprise hit since its debut in 2016; regardless of the many wires it requires, it’s been able to slot into the living room easily, allowing families and friends to take turns in VR games to show the fun of the genre, and the potential too.
Barring a slight update in 2017 that brought better manageable wires and integrated stereo-headphones, there’s only been a confirmation by Mark Cerny that the peripheral will be compatible with the PlayStation 5 when it launches at the end of the year.
Seeing as the patent was published last October and granted in May, it seems like we could be seeing an improved PS VR soon, so we could be playing Wipeout VR and Worms VR with a lesser need to take it off.