Sony patents VR safety system that adjusts play zone based on your speed
Sony has filed a patent for a system that tracks a user's position in a virtual reality game using camera data. It calculates how fast the user is moving to dynamically shrink or expand the safe play area, displaying a warning if the user gets too close to the edge.
In the filing’s own words
Methods and apparatus provide for: performing information processing on the basis of data received from a device that detects a user position; generating an image to be displayed as a result of the information processing; determining that the user needs to be warned when the user position indicates that the user moves out of a play area set in an object space in reference to a detection field of the device, and to cause the image generating section to superpose a warning image on the image to be displayed; and transmitting data of the image generated by the image generating section to a display device, where the transmitting includes outputting, to the display device, a confirmation screen prompting the user to confirm that there is an obstacle, prior to outputting the data of the image.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. An apparatus comprising: one or more processors; memory storing instructions that, upon execution, cause the apparatus to: track a position of a user in a real space over time based on a sequence of captured images; establish a safety play area mapped within the real space in reference to a detection field of an imaging device; obtain a real-time movement velocity vector based on a change to the tracked position over time; change a spatial boundary of the safety play area in the real space based on the real-time movement velocity vector; and present a warning image on a virtual environment image when the tracked position is outside the spatial boundary.
Facts
- Company
- Sony (Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.)
- Official title
- INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND WARNING PRESENTATION METHOD
- Publication number
- US20260315911A1
- Application number
- 19717900
- Filed
- Jun 24, 2026
- Published
- Oct 15, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
A63F 13/213 Human necessitiesA63F 13/25 Human necessitiesA63F 13/53 Human necessitiesA63F 13/533 Human necessitiesA63F 13/655 Human necessitiesG02B 27/00 Physics & computingMore from Sony in AR, VR & displays
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.