Sony patents PSP-controlled spy car
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Apr 11th 2009 12:04PM
posted Apr 11th 2009 12:04PM
Check it out, all you budding G. Gordon Liddys -- if the usual assortment of spy gadgets isn't doing the job, Sony's got something in the works that should be right up your alley. According to a little site called Siliconera, Sony's European arm has filed a patent for a remote-controlled car uses the PSP as an interface. This bad boy is equipped with a camera that feeds video back to the hand held and allows the user to upload the footage to a website. If that weren't all, the patent makes mention of an augmented reality racing game incorporating virtual markers and paths that the players physically create -- that is, the junk in your apartment is incorporated into on-screen game play. Innocent fun, right? Well, perhaps -- at least until Iran gets involved. They're still pretty bent by the whole squirrel thing.
[Via Joystiq]
[Via Joystiq]
So that's who stole my car.
You drive a remote control car?
i would totally drive this into the girls locker room ...
Nice to see you were able to get your age as your nick.
i think he missed the "y" at the end of his nick though.
actually it's the number of times i've been paid to have sex
with your mom
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
LOLZ
That actually sounds like a lot of fun!
fun-filled GTA-style mass-rampage roadkill! sign me up!
I would really like to know how they got those wheels to float on the remote control car!
Who draws these? Seriously? No wonder things get ripped off all the time. You can barely tell what it is they're patenting...
The better question is HOW THE HECK do people continually manage to patent things that have already been done by so many others? Use a video game controller to pilot a spy vehicle? Ever heard of the ARMY??? Remotely piloting vehicles with handheld devices containing a display and controls is ancient history. Just because their current incarnation happens to be a PSP doesn't make it REMOTELY original! This patent is complete bunk!
Bond, James Bond.
TND ftw! xD
thats pretty cool, too bad it won't happen in the forseeable future
Maybe for the iPhone/iPod Touch soon :D
If they can get passed the patent maybe. Depends how it's worded i.e. if it's specifically patented for use with the PSP as the interface it's possible, but if it's something along the line of "an existing mobile device with a screen to relay the camera data" then it wouldn't. Seems unlikely anyway - somehow it just doesn't seem like an apple kind of thing. 3rd party perhaps, but only if the patent is specific.
G. Gordon Liddy? Are you sure you're not overestimating your audience a bit there, Engadget? :)
Grant (Mythbusters) probably wishes he would've came up with this in the past episode!
They did it in '06 http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/2206/3230/view.phtml
Interesting concept, but really?
The iran thing is really low... its shitty that engadget has to drop that low and feed that type of news
-100 for that part
+1 for the actual useful patent info
yeah what the wtf was up with that, it's not even funny
+ 1,
Stop with the fucking propaganda (and horrible attempt at Wit) Engadget and stick to you role because Gizmodo is kicking your ass at it.
Too bad it's already been done. Some UGV/AGV researchers at Redstone Arsenal wired up a hummer (HMMWV) and drove it remotely, and I'm pretty sure they did it with a PSP as the remote.
Nothing new here. Remote control with video has been in use for some time.
i think they already made something like this around 2004 for use with Sony Ericsson phones
just found it on google, it was called the Sony Ericsson ROB-1
too bad they didn't make it look like a car. they also made the SE CAR-100 around that time, but that didn't have a camera.
these two gadgets were on top of my wishlist back in my Sony Ericsson days, too bad i couldn't buy them anywhere :(
it took them 5 years to figure out they had to combine both :P
in short, there is nothing revolutionary at all about this
This is so interesting design
I am not think PSP can do this
This is so amazing
Thank you so much !!
This would totally make me use my PSP more...
Inaccurate. You don't "file a patent." You file an APPLICATION. And hopefully, this will never be awarded, because it's nothing new. But the way the USPTO works these days (which is to say, DOESN'T work), it probably will be.
cool
Tomorrow Never Dies has come to life.
We're screwed.
cool
I've been chasing my two cats with a 1/8th scale radio controlled Land Rover with a security camera velcro'd to its top, and displayed on my 50" DLP HDTV for years. Darn ... I wish "I" had registered the patent.
Mythbusters would still find a way to take one of these and epic fail it.
Crash into bay. Shatter entire cities windows etc.
I watched the first episode of the new season (Demolition derby). These guys can't get ANYTHING right. Runaway vehicle count was through the roof.
Mythbusters killing somebody soon - Plausible
Mythbusters using any sort of scientific method - Busted
Red head being hot -.......plausible..... as long as she doesn't talk.
Captain Hammer would put a stop to this in a heartbeat
It's really interesting that a network-connected remote-controlled vehicle with a video camera that streams video and is remotely controlled by a network-connected battery-operated mobile computer can actually be patented... it's pretty obvious to anyone "skilled in the art" of robotics, electrical engineering and computer science.... academic research into radio-controlled robots with streaming real-time video have been around for many years.
Here is a URL is an example of this patent using commercial off-the-shelf Wi-Fi components
http://www.jbprojects.net/projects/wifirobot/
old ass news.