PlayStation Developing Technology to Predict Players’ Movements, Sony Says

Sony has patented a frame generation technology for PlayStation that predicts player actions from controller data and prepares images in advance to reduce latency.

Unlike existing Frame Generation systems, Sony’s technology analyzes not only frames that have already been rendered but also controller input, trying to anticipate the player’s next actions.

Current frame generation inserts artificial images between the frames processed by the graphics card. This makes motion smoother but can increase input latency. Sony proposes an approach similar to rollback netcode in online games. For example, if the system recognizes the intent to jump, it prepares the matching animation frames ahead of time.

The patent also describes a mechanism for reducing visual artifacts when a prediction is wrong. The technology is provisionally called Frame Generation Super Sampling. It uses an encoder to analyze the image and a decoder to create a synthetic frame before standard rendering finishes.

For now, this is only a patent. Sony has not said whether the technology will come to PlayStation consoles or what hardware requirements it would have. Incorrect predictions in fast-paced games could hurt gameplay, so testing will play a decisive role.