If you were delighted at Sony’s “wand” showing this E3, you’ll be even more delighted to know that apparently, you don’t even need the bloody thing. We’re confused - the wand seemed like a great idea, but a new patent has been found by Siliconera that appears to ’scan’ in any household object and use it as a controller. The patent graphics show a bizarre U-shaped block which is translated into a sword on screen, but the text says that the scanner’s abilities will include items such as “coffee mugs, drinking glasses, books [and] bottles” so let’s hope there’s not going to be a Glasgow simulator where you go around smashing stuff on people’s heads.
It appears the the system, which has not yet been officially announced, would request that the user ’show’ the camera different angles of the device in question before it can recognise what it is and what it will be used for in-game. This means that you’ll be able to use your cat as a golf club, for example, or a tin of baked beans instead of a bazooka. It also makes a slight mockery of Microsoft’s invisible steering wheel when you can just use Grandma’s old China plates instead. Whilst in principle this idea is fabulous, I for one assumed Sony were concentrating all their efforts on making the most out of the original wand idea - if the camera can track anything in 3D space, why would we need to buy yet another bit of bloody plastic?
Siliconera have, for some reason, omitted a direct link to the patent but you can see the graphics used in the document via the link in the first paragraph, above.
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