A new DualSense patent published today gives us a glimpse at the internals of the PS5 controller. While the patent itself focuses on the microphone array specifically, it still gives a glimpse at the DualSense as a whole. The abstract says:
Many input devices used for game operations have a plurality of operation members such as an operation stick, a push button, a cross key (direction key), and a trigger button. Patent Document 1 discloses an input device having such an operation member and having a voice input function. This input device has a microphone array composed of a plurality of microphones. In Patent Document 1, adaptive beamforming processing is executed for a user’s uttered voice by using voice data obtained from a plurality of microphones.
The patent was discovered by ZubyWHUPS on Twitter, and contains a number of images showing the internal construction to allow for mounting of the microphone array, as well as diagrams of the inputs on the outside, including a headphone input (which was confirmed shortly after the DualSense reveal after people feared it wouldn’t have one).
With the number of inputs on a controller, the patent calls out the need for specialized housing and array functionality to not impede the ability to pick up audio while also canceling out handling noises of the controller. Much of the patent discusses this aspect of the controller, and should not be confused as a patent for the entire controller itself. The scope of this one is about how the microphone array functions, and doesn’t include anything about haptic feedback, dynamic triggers, or any of the other notable (or even rumored) features of the DualSense.
However, if individual features are seeing patents published, it’s possible we could continue to see additional features get patents in the coming weeks which could give us an even more in-depth look at the features of the controller.
The DualSense patent for the microphone array joins the PS5 dev kit patent published today that looks at the console’s unique cooling system.
The PlayStation 5 console is scheduled for a release sometime in holiday 2020.