Sony patent hints at PSP bomb disposal spy car functionality

Technology site Siliconera has spotted a patent filed by Sony for a radio controlled car that you operate with your PSP. The car has a camera, and it beams what it sees to the PSP screen so that you can steer the car from a different room.

This no doubt puts you in mind of those bomb disposal robots that sometimes appear in films, but Sony envisions a different use for the technology. In the words of the patent application, “a user may control the car … so as to spy on their friends.”

Once you’ve obtained the footage you’re after, you can upload it so that the world can see what your friends get up to when they don’t think anybody’s watching them.

The proposed car will have a speaker and/or a microphone, the possibilities for which are endless. You could include car engine noises, for instance, or recordings of yourself making ghost noises. Or something else.

Also interesting is the notion of “augmented reality zones”, whereby you determine physically areas in which your car can race virtually, making on-screen racetracks out of your actual living room, for example, either as it is or with the objects in it substituted for virtual ones. That is, you might decide to turn your couch into a tank.

All in all it sounds quite promising. It’s just a patent, though, so don’t start saving yet.

Siliconera [via Eurogamer]