Sony has plans for a Minority Report VR glove

Minority Report
An early edition PlayStation VR glove?

Gazing around in virtual reality is all well and good, but what happens when you want to pick up and touch something that isn't actually there? Both Oculus and HTC have been working on innovative controllers for their VR headsets but it seems Sony could have something even more futuristic in the pipeline.

According to recently published patents from the US Patent and Trademark Office, Sony has plans for sensor-packed gloves that will track your hands in VR space. Movement, pressure and position can all be tracked, according to the outlines submitted in the documents.

Technology described in patents doesn't always make it to market but it shows Sony is at least thinking about introducing some gloves much like the ones Tom Cruise and his pals used in Minority Report. As well as playing games, the gloves could be used to navigate menus, the patent says.

Cruise control

With the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift finally reaching consumers later this year, we're awash in VR technology and news at the moment - it was one of the dominating themes at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Sony's PlayStation VR will be the third major virtual reality headset to go on sale during 2016, but as yet we don't know exactly when it's going to arrive or how much it's going to cost when it does. There has been plenty of speculation on both points, however.

For now it's the existing Move controllers and DualShock 4 device that control games inside PlayStation VR, but one day in the near future you might simply be waving and jabbing your hands much as you do in real life.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.