A new Sony patent aimed at intervention for gamers intends to make sure that players are using correct posture and not using too many repetitive motions while gaming. The patent also intends to often recommend breaks to the players, stretches, and more. According to the patent’s abstract.
“A game intervention server may evaluate, based on learning models, posture, and physical motions for players for repetitive, unbalanced, or excessive motions, as well as gameplay quality patterns, and compare to thresholds for identifying unhealthy conditions.”
Posture is important to anyone who sits down a lot whether playing games or working at a job, as spending too long in a single position, without healthy posture, can lead to back pain and spinal trouble. Being reminded to sit up straight rather than slumping in your seat can help a lot of gamers to avoid those sorts of problems to begin with, according to the patent.
When performed or held over extended periods of time, such repetitive movements or improper positioning of the body or limbs may result in stress injuries or other detrimental physiological effects.
Gameplay of some presently available interactive content titles may entail repetitive and/or unbalanced motions that may include finger movements, misaligned posture, and/or awkward limb positions. When performed or held over extended periods of time, such repetitive movements or improper positioning of the body or limbs may result in stress injuries or other detrimental physiological effects. For example, repetitive stress injury (RSI) is a common risk associated with long hours of gaming. Hand injuries like “gamer’s thumb” may be due to repetitive strain on the thumb’s tendons may lead to inflammation, pain, and limited movement. Other similar issues may arise with respect to, for example, back posture and placement of the arms and legs in positions over an extended period, which may cause poor blood flow.
The patent says that the device to help gamers maintain healthy posture would be done via motion capture, mainly in examining the motions made during gameplay on a controller that the system can likely use to extrapolate that a player is making use of repetitive movements or is exhibiting bad posture.
While we don’t know when or how this patent might be used (or even if it will at all), it’s still good to see Sony Interactive Entertainment keeping up with the health of their players. Various other patents filed in the past have done the same, intending to make different devices intended to help gamers exhibit more healthy behavior. With luck, we’ll be seeing something like this soon.