Valve Corporation

Described herein are controllers with sensor-rich controls for enhanced controller functionality. An example control may include a pressure sensor that is configured to detect an amount of a force of a press on a cover of the control based at least in part on a proximity of a metal layer to the pressure sensor. This control may further include a touch sensor for detecting an object contacting the cover of the control. Additional embodiments disclose, among other things, integrated trackpads and D-pads, as well as backlighting features that indicate a functional state of the controller.

A drop resistant controller is described. A control of the controller may include a cover, a circuit board disposed behind the cover and within a housing of the controller, and a switch mounted to the circuit board. The circuit board includes a cantilever portion, a main body portion, and a cutout defined in the circuit board between the cantilever portion and the main body portion. The switch is mounted to the circuit board on the cantilever portion and is configured to provide, to a processor(s), data indicative of an actuation of the control. Damage to the control, and/or to particular components thereof (e.g., the switch), is mitigated by the ability of the cantilever portion of the circuit board to flex under high-force impacts on the control.

Described herein are controllers with sensor-rich controls for enhanced controller functionality. An example control may include a pressure sensor that is configured to detect an amount of a force of a press on a cover of the control based at least in part on a proximity of a metal layer to the pressure sensor. This control may further include a touch sensor for detecting an object contacting the cover of the control. Additional embodiments disclose, among other things, integrated trackpads and D-pads, as well as backlighting features that indicate a functional state of the controller.

A handheld video game controller is operable in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mode to allow for sending controller input data to a target BLE device in a manner that bypasses any operating system (OS) restrictions that might otherwise be imposed on game controller input. When operating in the BLE mode, the handheld video game controller pairs (establishes a radio link) with a BLE device executing a client application used for video game streaming. During gameplay, the video game executes on a host computer and the player provides user input to the game controller to control an aspect of the video game. In response to such user input, the game controller sends controller input data to the BLE device via a radio of the game controller. The player may switch between operating the game controller in BLE mode and receiver mode using input gestures on the game controller.

A handheld controller may include controls that are actuatable by a user. The handheld controller may further include one or more sensors that are configured to detect an object in proximity to certain controls, and/or that sense a grip or position of a hand on a handle portion of the controller. Based on data from a sensor(s), certain controls may be enabled and/or disabled. The sensors may therefore be used to determine which controls are being used or are intended to be used, and/or which controls are likely accessible or inaccessible to the user based on sensor data, and to cause one or more controls of the handheld controller to be enabled and/or disabled accordingly.

A handheld video game controller is operable in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mode to allow for sending controller input data to a target BLE device in a manner that bypasses any operating system (OS) restrictions that might otherwise be imposed on game controller input. When operating in the BLE mode, the handheld video game controller pairs (establishes a radio link) with a BLE device executing a client application used for video game streaming. During gameplay, the video game executes on a host computer and the player provides user input to the game controller to control an aspect of the video game. In response to such user input, the game controller sends controller input data to the BLE device via a radio of the game controller. The player may switch between operating the game controller in BLE mode and receiver mode using input gestures on the game controller.

Techniques and devices for determining how to present the release of the virtual object based at least in part on received sensor data is described herein. For example, when the hardware and/or software determines that the virtual object is to be released, the hardware and/or software may calculate one or more of a velocity of the object (e.g., speed and direction), a position at which the virtual object is to be released, a trajectory of the virtual object from the position of release to the landing point of the virtual object, a landing location of the virtual object, and/or the like. The hardware and/or software may then present the virtual object being released according to this determined information.

Various embodiments are directed towards employing one or more physical sensors arranged on or in proximity to a video game player to obtain biofeedback measures that are then useable to dynamically modify a state of play of a video game. The sensors may be connected or even unconnected to the game player, replace, or otherwise augment traditional physical game controllers. The sensors gather various biofeedback measures and provide such measures to a biofeedback application programming interface (API). Before and/or during video game play, the video game queries the biofeedback API to request inferences about the game player's state of arousal. The response to the query is then used to modify the state of the video game play. Where the video game is a multi-player video game, biofeedback measures from other game players may also be obtained and used to further modify the state of the video game play.

A method including receiving at least one of touch data or force data representing a touch input received at the controller, determining one or more model(s), generating image data using the one or more models, the image data representing at least a hand gesture corresponding to the touch input received at the controller, and transmitting the image data to a virtual reality (VR) environment for display.

The logic of a handheld controller system may use a clustering algorithm to determine which sensors of a touch sensor array, such as capacitive pads, to assign to individual fingers of a user's hand. The clustering algorithm disclosed herein allows for dynamically determining the controller configuration on-the-fly for a given user. An example process includes receiving data generated by a plurality of sensors of a touch sensor array of the handheld controller, generating a covariance matrix that indicates correlations between pairs of sensors, determining a plurality of feature vectors based at least in part on the covariance matrix, each feature vector corresponding to an individual sensor and describing that sensor's correlation(s) with one or more other sensors, clustering the feature vectors using a clustering algorithm, and configuring the touch sensor array according to a controller configuration that assigns sensors to respective fingers of a hand.