SonyPatent applicationAR, VR & displaysInterest 7/10

Sony patents VR safety feature that shows real world when you get too close to walls

Illustration of the invention — Illustration based on the patent drawing. Not a photo of a real product.

Patent drawing from the official filing.

Sony has filed a patent for a system that tracks your position in a virtual reality game to detect when you are getting close to a physical boundary. If you approach a wall or leave the safe play area, the system pauses the game and switches the display to show the real world through the headset's camera.

Why it mattersThis improves safety for VR players by preventing them from walking into furniture or walls, making the experience less disorienting and more secure.

In the filing’s own words

Techniques are disclosed for reducing an oppressive feeling of a user when a virtual object representing a boundary surface dividing a region in a real space in which the user is permitted to exist from a region in the real space in which the user is not permitted to exist is displayed. The techniques include locating a position of the user wearing a head-mounted display. The techniques include identifying, as an approach portion, a part of a boundary surface dividing a permitted region that is the region in the real space in which the user is permitted to exist from an unpermitted region that is the region in the real space in which the user is not permitted to exist, on the basis of the located position of the user. The techniques include causing the head-mounted display to display a virtual object representing the identified approach portion.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A device comprising: one or more processors configured to: execute a game program to cause a head-mounted display to display a virtual space; locate a position of a user wearing the head-mounted display in a real space; determine, based on the position of the user, whether the user has approached a boundary surface that divides a permitted region in the real space where the user is allowed to exist from an unpermitted region in the real space where the user is not allowed to exist, or whether the user has moved to the unpermitted region outside the boundary surface; and based on a determination that the user has approached the boundary surface or has moved to the unpermitted region: suspend execution of the game program, and cause the head-mounted display to display a real-world image captured by a camera of the head-mounted display.

Facts

Company: Sony (Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.)
Official title: BOUNDARY DISPLAY CONTROL DEVICE, BOUNDARY DISPLAY CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM
Publication number: US20260325955A1
Application number: 19718721
Filed: Jun 24, 2026
Published: Oct 22, 2026
Inventors: 1
Claims: 20

Classified under

A63F 13/212 Human necessitiesA63F 13/428 Human necessitiesA63F 13/53 Human necessitiesA63F 13/65 Human necessitiesG02B 27/017 Physics & computingG02B 27/0179 Physics & computing

Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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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.