Sony patent could show a way to log in to PS5 just by picking up your controller

A new patent application from Sony could show a new way to automatically log in to your PS5, just by picking up your controller.

The patent, which was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in February and was published on August 20, was spotted soon after by SegmentNext. It describes a system that uses a controller's built-in motion sensors (it could easily be a PS5 controller, though it doesn't mention any new features beyond what's built into a DualShock 4) to detect the specific way a user picks up and handles the controller. It would then use this data to automatically select one of the user profiles already associated with a game console and log in.

When I first heard about this patent, I wondered if Sony was planning on building more biometric sensors into PS5 that could pick up things like fingerprints. There's no mention of that kind of purpose-built identification technology in the patent. Instead, the system familiarizes itself with how much a controller moves and in what way when it's picked up, then automatically associates that information with a user.

The patent also describes how a game console could also use the controller's built-in haptic feedback to move the controller itself, then measure how users respond. On top of motion, the info associated with each user could include button presses. This could create a hybrid movement and button press key code system which would probably go a lot faster than typing in a password manually each time while still offering some degree of security (at least on a per-console basis).

As with any patent application, there's no guarantee that Sony will ever put this particular idea into one of its products. We still have a lot more to learn about PS5, though, and a new way to log in would be a welcome piece of news.

Check out our guide to upcoming PS5 games to see what you could play first on the new console.

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.