With rumors of Microsoft working on a new version of Kinect for its next-gen console (Durango, Xbox 720, Kryptos, or whatever it's called now), Sony seems eager to start working on something similar.
Discovered by PlayStation Lifestyle, a few days shy of Christmas, the company had filed a patent for a camera with "the ability to capture and map the third-dimension in addition to normal two-dimensional video imagery."
While that may sound like all that disimilar from Microsoft's Kinect, the patent includes a number of illustrations showing a hand used in the same manner as a gun, and what 8 year old in all of us hasn't done that before?
The patent goes on to describe how the camera could detect different movements made by the hand and fingers: "The user may be able to shoot by different hand gestures, may be able to reload the gun with different gestures, and the different positions or orientations of the user's hand may cause different graphical renderings of the user or gun on the display screen when the user is interacting with a particular game program."
Technologically, it sounds very intriguing. But from a marketing standpoint, it sounds very unlikely, as this would completely eliminate any market for additional peripherals. In other words, Nintendo's nightmare.
While Sony may have filed the patent, it remains to be seen how, if at all, they plan on implementing said technology. Readers can view the patent in full here. You can also read a few more rumors about Sony's next console here. Just remember, take everything with a big grain of salt until Sony says otherwise.