Sony looks into better combating motion sickness on VR

Files a new related PS VR patent

With all the talk about the just-announced Oculus Quest, the latest VR headset from Facebook that will ship this Spring for $399, I thought it would be appropriate to write about a new patent filed by Sony. Though hardly an indication that their PS VR efforts will go anywhere beyond this (worth noting that they are leading the market by a wide majority), the patent does at least indicate that Sony is still tinkering with VR behind the scenes.

The big question however is what comes next and I have a nagging suspicion that we won’t find out until a new PlayStation console launches. Brianna Reeves writes this for PlayStation LifeStyle:

Motion sickness is an unfortunate side effect for some, one that producers of VR tech have yet to alleviate. If a recently published patent is anything to go by, Sony may have found an answer.

In 2017, Sony filed a patent that proposed a way in which to eliminate motion sickness from PlayStation VR. According to UploadVR, the patent wasn’t published until September 2018. To combat what the patent refers to as “virtual reality sickness,” the head-mounted display will feature built-in sensors and thermometers that can track a user’s health threshold. If the device detects the user is entering a state of discomfort, it will presumably alert them.

Sound comes into play as well. If a user begins speaking in a manner conducive to irritation, such as cursing or saying “negative phrases,” the device will take it as a sign of discomfort. Whether this technology is embedded with something that betters the experience without the wearer removing the headset remains to be seen.

With Oculus Quest and other related devices like Magic Leap and HoloLens (which are mixed reality and not VR), the industry is moving towards the optimal form factor of these types of headsets, which is wireless. One thing that makes PS VR and other headsets far less accessible is their wired nature. However, when you consider the power needed to drive a good VR experience as well as battery life, it’s easy to see why wired has been the most widely used method.

If Sony is in fact working on PS VR2, it’s going to be interesting to see the routes they take — will it be as tied to PS5 as PS VR is tied to PS4 or will it be more of an independent device?

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