Part of PS5's follow-up to PlayStation VR may have been revealed in a newly discovered patent

The Sony patent, filed with WIPO and first discovered by LetsGoDigital, shows an entirely new kind of controller that would align the next-generation version of PSVR with competitors like the Oculus Quest 2 and Valve Index

Currently used as a PSVR controller, the PlayStation Move controller is over a decade old and was originally created for the PS3 Therefore, a new controller is definitely needed and could be made to the specifications of this new design

The patent, simply named "Input Device," is written in Japanese, but thanks to Google's translation magic we were able to see the details

The design looks like a large plastic knuckle-duster, with a central grip with analog sticks, a trigger, and several buttons surrounded by a semicircular loop The controller emits light (possibly infrared), which is picked up by a camera attached to a VR headset or another peripheral and turned into in-game input

Sony recognizes that one problem with this approach is that when the controller is held in a particular orientation, the light may overlap with the camera's viewpoint, which can lead to inaccurate game input The solution is to point two sets of lights in different directions and partition them with shading elements to reduce the likelihood of this happening

In the following figure, the black dots marked "H" represent the luminous elements: one set is on the main loop, pointing away from the user's hand, and the other set is mounted around the bottom, pointing in the opposite direction

Motion sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes are also mentioned in the article These, too, would help determine how the controller is being held and moved without the problem of light overlap

Since these controllers have fewer buttons than the current PlayStation Move controllers, it is worth considering how older button-driven PSVR titles will perform with these newer controllers Fortunately, the text mentions that the controllers may have fewer or more buttons, and the patent does not force companies to use only a single design, even if it becomes an actual product

We know that Sony is at least working on a new VR headset, based on a job posting from the company last month It does not specify which division of the company that job would be in, but it is a reasonable assumption that PlayStation is working on a successor to the PSVR

Since the PS5 is only a few weeks away from hitting store shelves, this is the perfect time for Sony to prepare its next big follow-on gaming product; VR is something Xbox has not experimented with, and there have been no leaks or rumors of a VR project for the Xbox Series X