Playstation 3 owners can already watch movies and play games with their multi-tasking device, but a new patent filing sniffed out by Siliconera indicates that Sony might try blending the two into a brand new interactive experience.
Dubbed the "Method and Apparatus For Real-Time Viewer Interaction With A Media Presentation," the patent describes a program that would drop a graphical overlay on top of movies or TV shows. Viewers would appear as little avatars seated in front of the show and would be able to interact with the onscreen action, much like the characters in cult-hit show "Mystery Science Theater 3000," which the patent is polite enough to reference by name.
Sony diagrams the newest future craze.
How exactly would players interact with shows? From the patent:
"For example, avatars...in response to manipulation of a game controller or other such expedient, may toss tomatoes that stick to the actor’s face or bounce off the actor’s face and roll along a table that appears in the movie or television show.”
It's not just about throwing vegetables, however. Other examples include the ability to use a game controller to shoot spiders off an actor's back and even kick an actor in the rump.
Sony also indicates that the system has been designed with sponsors in mind, so that instead of throwing tomatoes, you might throw cans of Coca-Cola. Sneaky!
Of course, a patent is a long ways off from a reality. Considering some of the wacky filings we've seen recently, there's little reason to think this is actually going to hit your PS3 any time soon...other than the fact that anything resembling "Mystery Science Theater 3000" is, by definition, awesome enough to warrant hope.
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Posted: 4 Nov 2009
