Sony has filed a new patent that appears to hint that the company is investing in the development of an interactive 3D avatar for players.
A company filing a patent doesn’t mean that the technology is completed and ready for launch, but it does give insight into what a company is working on. These technologies may never even be launched and remain on the shelf for perpetuity. They could even be projects that don’t have the company’s full attention.
Sony alone has over 95,000 patents filed since the company was established.
But this time, it’s clear to see that this is a technology Sony is fully interested in. What isn’t clear is how they’re planning on using it.
The patent filing explains that the interactive 3D avatar would be able to convey the emotions of players and more in real-time. Similar to the technologies currently used by V-Tubers and their virtual avatars but pushing the fold.
Sony is attempting to develop an animated avatar that would follow the user’s minute facial expressions instead of drawing from a database of expressions. Each and every expression would be modified and Sony’s filing implies that players would have their places scanned in order for this to work. There could be a connection to a patent filed previously by Sony that focuses on an AI-based facial animation.
The plan for this interactive avatar works similarly to how V-Tubers and their avatars function.
V-Tubers have 3D models created by artists. Sony would have users convert their own faces into 3D models.
This could be where another Sony patent could come into play, this time being their picture-in-picture patent that would allow Playstation users to continue gaming while also having chat, video, and music apps open on the screen without crashing the system. There have been jailbreaking variations of this made by modders for the consoles, but Sony hasn’t launched an official update with that capability yet.
If both of these technologies are combined, it wouldn’t just be an expressive avatar, but also allow for speech bubbles and other overlay boxes. Still, Sony hasn’t released any information about how they are going to capture the user’s faces accurately, the patent doesn’t go into details about how it would be achieved.
Another project Sony is working on is a gameplay feature that would provide players with more information about the outcomes of their gaming style in any given game.
Sony’s purpose for the project is to provide players with information about advanced progression goals they might not know are there and also help remind players of different objectives and outcomes that could have been forgotten.
