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PS VR2 Will Study and Make Adjustments for the Physical Capabilities of Players
A recent patent shows an important accessibility feature that Sony might be planning to use to improve PS VR2 over the original for players with a limited range of motion. This improved accessibility could help make up for PS VR2's lack of backwards compatibility, especially for players who might not have been as accommodated by the previous virtual reality peripheral.
This information comes from a patent filed earlier this year that has since been published to view, which lays out exactly how PS VR2 plans to use this system to make menus easier to navigate based on player capabilities. What's most interesting about the new feature is the way that it won't use direct input from players, but instead tracks a player's movement to make dynamic changes.
The patent itself details that the goal of the system is to monitor whenever a player attempts to interact with objects within the virtual reality world while using the PS VR2 headset and controllers. As a result of this monitoring, it tries to learn where the player is able to interact and will then dynamically move menus to place them within the area that is most easily accessible. This might not necessarily make specific games more accessible, but it can at least make navigating through the menus of future PS VR2 titles more easy.
For the most part, however, much of this accessibility feature can be boiled down to the PS VR2 learning what kind of movement a player is capable of doing and moving the screen to accommodate. According to some explanations provided in the patent application, this could also go beyond simply changing menu placements and may actually completely reset where the player's central perspective is within the virtual world. This could then make this system one of PS VR2's biggest features, both to those who require the accessibility options, but also for fans who might like more dynamic setting options.
Accessibility options can often be used as a buzzword issue that helps give gaming hardware and software developers a positive appearance to fans. However, for many gaming enthusiasts, accessibility can be the difference between being able to fully engage with a game or leaving it unavailable due to their specific capabilities. In that case, this base system might help to make more of PS VR2's games accessible to all players, especially those who have historically been left behind within the gaming industry.
PS VR2 is expected to release early in 2023.
