Summary
Sony, ever coming up with new patents to potentially improve the video gaming experience, has filed two patent applications for an AI assistant that will talk to gamers as they play. Every year, at least a few ofSony’s new patents grab attention, teasing gamers with a gamut of interesting innovations that may never see the light of day, or at least not for a long time.
These patents cover a range of quality-of-life enhancements, though in recent years they have increasingly incorporated artificial intelligence to some extent. In April,Sony filed a patent that discussed an AI-driven autoplay featurethat would allow gamers to skip particularly difficult or repetitive gameplay moments, for example. Another intriguing patent introduced a small robot that could sync with an in-game character’s movements and mimic them in real life.
On February 6, Sony filed another patent application for a “conversational digital assistant.” This would allow a gamer to ask, for instance, “Which button is jump?” and the AI-powered assistant would respond. Or the player could ask to be alerted if an enemy were approaching from behind. The assistant could be configured to respond verbally or via nonverbal audio cues like a chirp, onscreen text, or even tactile feedback. If this idea ever moves beyond concept to implementation, it could prove particularly useful as an accessibility option or tohelp players struggling with a game’s difficulty.
Sony Files Patents for 2 AI-Powered Conversational Assistants
In addition to the conversational digital assistant, Sony filed a patent application for a “virtual assistant for game discovery” on February 6. This AI assistant would possess a machine learning algorithm that enables it to emulate the communication style of popular PlayStation characters and provide in-game guidance. In the patent application, the example provided shows a person playingHorizon Zero Dawnand asking how to defeat a particular foe; an onscreen overlay of Kratos’ head provides the response. These two patent applications could clearly work in tandem, with the overall goal being hands-off, non-interruptiveassistance provided to gamers.
Though much of the tech outlined in Sony’s gaming patents over the years has yet to come to fruition, some of it has indeed served as foreshadowing of things to come. All the way back in 2015,Sony filed patents for a portable gaming devicewith a few different possible configurations, one of which ended up looking remarkably similar to 2023’s PlayStation Portal. It’s also encouraging to see that Sony is actively attempting to come up with innovative ways to enhance the player experience, much of which bodes well for the future of gaming.
