Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Sony Corporation

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Technology Corp.

Konica-minolta Holdings, Inc.

Yuichi Machida

Shinichi Hirata

Yoichi Nishimaki

Ikuo Yamano

Yusuke Nakagawa

Kunihito Sawai

Yasushi Okumura

Norihiro Nagai

Yoshihisa Takahashi

Yu Hirono

Fumiyasu Suzuki

Atsuro Yanata

Takuya Kuji

Masao Kondo

Takeshi Yamagishi

Toshiyuki Hata

Tadatoshi Danno

Kusunoki Higashino

Tomoshi Hirayama

Ichio Shimizu

Nobuya Koike

Yoichi Mizutani

Akira Muto

Masato Kajimoto

Kisho Ashida

Masaki Tamura

Yasuo Nishi

Jun Sakamoto

Hisashi Tomita

Kazuo Miura

Kenya Kawano

Atsushi Fujiki

Masanori Shimazoe

Kaname Kosugi

Yoshifumi Takafuji

Naomi Kubo

Shigekazu Sakai

Koujiro Yoshida

Hironobu Yamaguchi

Mitsuhiro Yoda

Tsutomu Sampei

Methods and apparatus provide for controlling an operating device, where the operating device includes: (i) a grip part to be gripped by a user; and (ii) an operation part for activation by a finger of the user gripping the grip part, and where the operation part includes: (i) a movable part capable of moving from a resting position toward another position in response to a force applied by the finger of the user, (ii) a biasing element operating to urge the movable part toward the resting position, and (iii) a motorized assembly operating to receive a drive signal and apply a force to the movable part in an opposite direction of the force applied by the finger of the user.

Operation device and method for controlling the same

An operation device has a movable portion movable between a first position and a second position. The movable portion is operated by a user while the operation device is gripped by the user. The operation device receives information identifying a control mode and control information defined for each control mode as an instruction related to control of a tactile force sense, and controls the tactile force sense presented to the movable portion by using the received control information in the control mode identified by the received information.

Information processing system, operation device, and operation device control method

An apparatus includes a housing having a holding portion for gripping by a hand of a user; a manipulation block having a first side that includes at least one of: (i) one or more pressable buttons, and (ii) a stick button, and having a second side that includes a trigger button; and at least one of: (i) a thumb sensor block, located proximate to the first side of the manipulation block, and operable to detect the presence of the thumb of the hand of the user when the holding portion is gripped by the user, (ii) a first finger sensor, located on the trigger button, and operable to detect the presence of the at least one finger of the hand of the user when the holding portion is gripped by the user, and (iii) a second finger sensor, located proximate to both the second side of the manipulation block and the holding portion of the housing, and operable to detect the presence of at least one of a middle finger, a ring finger, and a pinky finger of the hand of the user when the holding portion is gripped by the user.

Control apparatus and control program

A controller device to be worn on a hand of a user includes a plurality of sensor sections that detect the fingers of the user and a sensor support section for supporting the sensor sections. The sensor support section supports the sensor sections in such a manner that the distance between mutually adjacent sensor sections is changeable.

Controller device

Methods and apparatus provide for a control unit; and an operating device including: (i) operation button to be activated by touch of a user, (ii) a first vibration mechanism for vibrating the operation button, and (iii) a second vibration mechanism for vibrating a main body of the operating device, where the control unit controls the first vibration mechanism and the second vibration mechanism.

Operating device and control system

Methods and apparatus provide for controlling an operating device, wherein the operating device includes: (i) a grip part to be gripped by a user; and (ii) an operation part for activation by a finger of the user gripping the grip part, where the operation part includes: (i) a movable part capable of moving from a resting position toward another position in response to a force applied by the finger of the user, (ii) a biasing element operating to urge the movable part toward the resting position, (iii) a sensor operating to measure the force applied by the finger of the user to the movable part and produce a sensing signal therefrom, and (iv) a motorized assembly operating to receive a drive signal, and in response, apply an amount of force to the movable part in opposition to the force applied by the finger of the user, and where the drive signal is a variable dependent on variations in the sensing signal, such that the amount of force applied to the movable part in opposition to the force applied by the finger of the user provides the user with haptic feedback.

Information processing system, operation device, and operation device control method with multi-mode haptic feedback

Methods and apparatus provide for causing a device to present a sense of force against depressing of a button in response to receiving an input initiated by the user of a sense-of-force presentation start position in said predetermined movable range, and to store the sense-of-force presentation start position in a memory in response to the input initiated by the user; acquiring a depress amount of said button; receiving the sense-of-force presentation start position from the memory; and instructing the presentation of the sense of force against depressing of said button when said depress amount reaches said sense-of-force presentation start position.

An operating device includes a movable part capable of moving between a first position and a second position, with the movable part being capable of operation by the finger of the user gripping the operating device. The operating device includes a regulating part that regulates a range in which the movable part can move, and a control part that determines the amount of regulation in which the movable part can move and provides the regulating part with an instruction to regulate the range in which the movable part can move according to the amount of regulation which has been determined.

Disclosed herein is a scent-emanating apparatus including a discharging mechanism which permits a scent substance perceivable by a user together with a marker substance for detection to be discharged outwards, and a sensor to detect the marker substance discharged from the discharging mechanism.

Scent-emanating apparatus

A control system includes a console device having an operating button to be operated by a user and a vibrating mechanism for vibrating the operating button, and a control device for controlling vibrations produced by the vibrating mechanism.

A control apparatus for a device with one of the left side and the right side of the device fixed as pressed against the palm of a user. The device includes a button that can be depressed within a predetermined movable range and a sense-of-force presentation block for presenting a sensor of force against button depression within a range in which any of the fingers of the user is reachable, the input of a sense-of-force presentation start position in the predetermined movable range being received, a button depressing amount being acquired, and, when the sense-of-force presentation start position is reached, instructing the sense-of-force presentation block to present a sense force against the depressing of the button.

A control apparatus is used for a device that is set up assuming that the device is worn on a user's left hand or right hand, acquires given information from the device, and determines whether the device is to be worn on the user's left hand or right hand on the basis of the given information acquired.

Control apparatus and control program for determining how a controller device is worn

An operation apparatus mountable to one hand of a user includes: a first operation section that is located on a front surface side and that can be operated by the thumb of the one hand; a second operation section that is located on a back surface side and that can be operated by a finger other than the thumb; and a first contact surface with which the palm of the one hand makes contact. At least one of the first contact surface and an extension plane of the first contact surface is inclined relative to a virtual plane in such a direction as to be spaced more therefrom in going in a first direction, the virtual plane being defined by the first direction from the front surface side toward the back surface side and a second direction being orthogonal to the first direction and directed from a bottom surface side toward a top surface side.

Operation apparatus

A control apparatus is connected to a device for detecting a user's hand motion, controls a motion of a virtual character, and decides, in accordance with a detection result of hand motion by the device, whether the detected motion is a first instruction action or a second instruction action. The first instruction action achieves a match between a hand motion of the character and the user's hand motion. The second instruction action instructs an action different from the user's hand motion. When it is decided, as a result of the decision, that the detected user's hand motion is the first instruction action, the control apparatus achieves a match between the character's hand motion and the detected user's hand motion. When it is decided that the detected user's hand motion is the second instruction action, the control apparatus causes the character to perform an action different from the hand motion.

Control apparatus

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Kanagawa, Japan

Yuichi Machida