Sony patents player recognition, but how soon will we see this implemented?

Sony filed for a patent in May earlier this year, where it was discovered by roving eyes that the Japanese consumer electronics giant intends to know just who their products’ users are. The patent has been titled, “Process and Apparatus for Automatically Identifying User of Consumer Electronics,” where it describes the incorporation of fingerprint sensors which would be able to let it read some biometric data of its users on different devices including smartphones, keyboards and gaming controllers. Could this be the beginning of what some might say, ushering in the mark of the beast? Most probably not, but it could bring gaming up to a totally new level of interactivity and customization.

This particular patent’s abstract reads, “A user of a device may be uniquely identified using a metric that is contingent upon the user using the device for its intended purpose without the user having to perform a separate step, function or operation for the express purpose of identifying the user.” Hmmm, games that react differently to individual gamers does sound like a plausible and good “excuse” to implement this in future game consoles.