Microsoft has filed a new patent that might be connected to a VR headset that could come out in the future. Even though the Activision Blizzard deal seems to be taking up a lot of time and effort, there seem to be a lot of other things going on behind the scenes.
As of this writing, the PS VR2 is the only home device that can be used with VR games. Even Nintendo has experimented with VR, albeit on a much lesser scale, with one of its Labo kits that included a buildable Switch enclosure that was held to the player’s face.
Labo, which was made by Nintendo, didn’t really take off with players. Even Sony’s PS VR2 has not sold as well as the company had hoped. Microsoft hasn’t shown much interest in virtual reality (VR), and you could say that Sony, Meta, and Valve control the market.
Do you know that Sony’s PlayStation games have broken a number of annual and quarterly sales marks? Most of these marks were broken because the PlayStation 5 sold so many units so quickly:
Microsoft just got a patent for a better eye-tracking device, which could be used in a future VR headset. The patent describes a system that is both self-calibrating and adaptable to device deformations and other modifications.
Even though this invention doesn’t look much like a VR headset, it could be part of a simple and easy-to-use VR system if it had a good eye-tracking system that could self-calibrate and account for changes. The invention could just be an improvement on Microsoft Hololens, which is an Augmented Reality technology used by the US Army and others.
Microsoft seems to be doing everything they can to keep the Xbox as popular and competitive as possible. Even though an Xbox-branded VR headset might not come out for a while, Microsoft is likely to want to be competitive in the VR area as it grows in the mainstream gaming market.
Microsoft has also recently tried out a handheld mode for Windows that would make it easier to use on devices like the Steam Deck. However, this was apparently just a prototype that “didn’t go much of anywhere,” according to the developer who made it.
Patents don’t always turn into consumer goods, but the enhanced eye tracking system seems like a sensible piece of technology that has a better chance of becoming a product than some of the more obscure patents that get filed from time to time.
In one of its patents, Sony recently said that Microsoft’s home theater systems were made by “inferior manufacturers,” which showed that the two companies don’t get along well.