US 12,128,296 B2
Dual sphere foot operated position-based controller
Glenn Black, San Francisco, CA (US); Celeste Bean, San Francisco, CA (US); Sergey Bashkirov, Salida, CA (US); and Michael Taylor, San Mateo, CA (US)
Assigned to Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., Tokyo (JP)
Filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Jun. 10, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/837,235.
Prior Publication US 2023/0398438 A1, Dec. 14, 2023
Int. Cl. A63F 13/24 (2014.01); A63F 13/21 (2014.01)
CPC A63F 13/24 (2014.09) [A63F 13/21 (2014.09); A63F 2300/1006 (2013.01); A63F 2300/105 (2013.01); A63F 2300/1068 (2013.01); A63F 2300/1087 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A controller apparatus, comprising:
two or more balls having a size sufficient for a human to manipulate with a single foot;
a support apparatus configured to support at least one of the two or more balls from below and restrict translation of the ball and permit rotation of at least one of the two or more the balls about its center with respect to at least two axes;
one or more position encoders disposed proximate a surface of each of the two or more balls, wherein the one or more encoders are configured to determine a rotational displacement of each of the two or more balls with respect to two or more axes, wherein the measured rotational displacement of the two or more balls is an input to a computer application and a velocity difference in the measured rotational displacement of the two or more balls is applied as an input to the computer application.