Home Gaming The PS4 controller once had biometric sensors

The PS4 controller once had biometric sensors

1 min read
39

touchy

Though I personally still prefer the Xbox One controller, the PlayStation 4’s input device is quite a wonderful thing; it’s slightly larger than the current Dualshock – but infinitely more comfortable to hold. It’s got some cool features, like the built-in motion sensing lightbar (when paired with a PlayStation eye) and a touchpad – but it could have had something else entirely.

According to Mark Cerny, the fellow who was in charge of designing the PlayStation 4, the controller could have included biometric sensors that would have known how tense or excited you were while playing, and adjusted the gameplay experience to match.

"We had a long research project where we looked at pretty much any idea we could think of," Cerny explained to Stuff. "Would it help to measure the galvanic response of the skin? We tried out a tremendous number of things – and then we went to the game teams to ask them what they thought they could use from the controller."

Of course, we already knew this. In the end though, the feature was pulled and the controller was tweaked to be very natural for playing First-person shooters.

"Historically we have heard many times that our controllers have not been ideal for first-person shooters, so we wanted to make sure we had something that would be much better for that genre," he continued.

"We tested the throw of the triggers, the position of the triggers, how much pressure it takes. We looked at the joysticks, the dead spot, we looked at convexity and concavity. [It] feels extraordinarily natural."

Some of you might recall that that sounds rather similar to Nintendo’s canned Vitality Sensor, continuing the Sony tradition of copying things from Nintendo.  It’s probably a good thing, because if Nintendo decides something’s too gimmicky, you probably don’t want it in your console.

Last Updated: July 17, 2013

39 Comments

  1. Umar Kiiroi Senk?

    July 17, 2013 at 09:04

    Oh man …. people at work thought I was mad for laughing so loud at this header ….. so much win Geoff ….!!!

    but man, Biometric sensors + Amnesia = WIN!!!!!!!the more afraid you get, the more health you lose in the game and your insanity meter goes up…… if only … I am but a dreamer…living in a world of dreams

    Reply

    • RinceWind

      July 17, 2013 at 09:12

      Darksouls, the more stressed you get, the harder the game becomes 0-O

      Reply

      • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

        July 17, 2013 at 09:16

        Holy krap …… perfect….. well then I guess the game would be unbeatable , that game was at once the main stress inducer.

        Reply

        • RinceWind

          July 17, 2013 at 09:21

          Well, you’d have monks that would remain calm enough to finish it. Can you imagine the nightmare level that OVG would push the game to?! 0-O You’d have the actual bosses jumping from the screen and whacking him across his jaw! hahahahah

          Reply

          • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

            July 17, 2013 at 09:31

            LOL would the controller even be able to handle his amount of stress? he is Rage personified lol man I’m glad there are no sensors

      • Concerned

        July 17, 2013 at 09:28

        Luckily Xbox can still do this by measuring your heartbeat and pupil dilation! Can I get a WHOOP WHOOP?

        Reply

        • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

          July 17, 2013 at 09:31

          Well that is an awesome use of the Kinect, would love such a feature in a game

          Reply

          • Concerned

            July 17, 2013 at 09:34

            Sounds like developers are coming up with some excellent ways to use Kinect 2 from what I’ve read from Dead Rising 3, BF4, and Killer Instinct so far! Good times ahead!????

          • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

            July 17, 2013 at 09:35

            Kinect has tons of potential though, especially when it’s power has been leveled up. hope they do use it in unique ways

          • Concerned

            July 17, 2013 at 09:43

    • Ultimo_Cleric N7

      July 17, 2013 at 09:42

      Man I was drinking some water and almost spat it out… HEADER.WIN.

      Reply

      • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

        July 17, 2013 at 09:43

        Exactly!! I’m glad I found some more pervert friends 🙂 !!

        Reply

        • TiMsTeR1033

          July 17, 2013 at 09:50

          I looked at the header and was like oh bio metric sensors 0_o what is that guy doing! what games would they make! I must say it would of been a great idea. dead rising would be great for this. your scared as hell and spanws 1000 zombies just behind you what once was a clear doorway. be like CRAP!!! then you say “fucking hell!! crap!!!” kinect alearts even more zombies! before you you know it your sitting in a little room using breathing techniques just so you dont get more zombies spawning! LMAO!

          Reply

          • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

            July 17, 2013 at 09:58

            HAHA,breathing methods will be included in the manual and tutorial

          • TiMsTeR1033

            July 17, 2013 at 10:01

            imagine how kak it will be wife says “dinners ready!” zombies just cmon in! by the hordes! hell you sneeze! more oh dear god what about people with barking dogs! they are just fucked no 2 ways about it.

        • Unavengedavo

          July 17, 2013 at 09:56

          Biometric sensors + Rift + Wicked Paradise + Fundawear = Fun times

          Reply

          • TiMsTeR1033

            July 17, 2013 at 09:57

            I have no idea what your talking about

          • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

            July 17, 2013 at 09:58

            So the Fundawear vibrates harder as heartbeat increases? who needs companionship. Single player all the way 😀

          • TiMsTeR1033

            July 17, 2013 at 09:59

            this is disturbing and wrong on so many levels

          • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

            July 17, 2013 at 10:00

            Fundawear bro…….fundawear 🙂

          • TiMsTeR1033

            July 17, 2013 at 10:02

            I will pretend I never heard fundawear nor will i google it to check

          • Unavengedavo

            July 17, 2013 at 10:09

            Condom company Durex Australia is developing new computerized vibrating underwear called Funderwear, allowing long-distance couples to “touch” each other using their smartphones.

          • Unavengedavo

            July 17, 2013 at 10:04

            Personally I would like to see that combined with the Kinect “depth perception” 😉

          • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

            July 17, 2013 at 10:14

            LOL …. gonna need some serious hip training

          • Unavengedavo

            July 17, 2013 at 11:02

          • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

            July 17, 2013 at 10:11

            Or! you could just have actual sex.

          • ToshZA

            July 17, 2013 at 10:13

            This.

          • Unavengedavo

            July 17, 2013 at 10:13

          • Umar Kiiroi Senk?

            July 17, 2013 at 10:18

            Can’t do that by yourself unfortunately

          • TiMsTeR1033

            July 17, 2013 at 10:21

            its ok… there there….

  2. RinceWind

    July 17, 2013 at 09:12

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! That is the best header I have ever laid my eyes on! WIN!

    Reply

  3. Theo Steenekamp

    July 17, 2013 at 09:14

    The places he had to go… just to get that legit Brazzers logo.

    Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      July 17, 2013 at 09:53

      atleast we know where geoff spends his free time lol

      Reply

    • Weanerdog

      July 17, 2013 at 13:41

      Hope he is doing the ion header today, seems like the research is done.

      Reply

  4. Trevor Davies

    July 17, 2013 at 09:15

    This is something that makes me feel really uncomfortable about the new consoles. Why must the hardware monitor how I feel & behave? It’s creepy. It seems more like some twisted form of data mining than an awesome feature for the person playing the game.

    Reply

  5. Uberutang

    July 17, 2013 at 09:16

    Playing games from my comfy couch it is then…. https://imageshack.us/a/img62/3205/castingcouch.jpg

    Reply

  6. FoxOneZA - X-Therminator

    July 17, 2013 at 10:03

    The Wii Vitality Sensor is DEAD.

    Reply

  7. Argentil

    July 17, 2013 at 14:37

    By that logic, MS are copying Nintendo by using camera tech to monitor heartrate?

    I’m sure the feature wasn’t implemented to reduce the cost of the controller. We all know how expensive Dualshock 3’s are. Adding in more sensors would only inflate the price further. I have high hopes that the Dualshock 4 will be about the same price, and not more than the DS3. With the inclusion of the lightbar, they might see fit to remove the gyroscopic sensors? That and the innards will be cheaper nowadays. If I see R850+ DS4s, I will be so disappointed.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Horizon Forbidden West features an entirely new skill tree and “free-climbing” system

You ever wonder if Nintendo paid the person who came up with “free-climbing” what they wer…