Project Leonardo: the Sony controller for people with disabilities
People with disabilities also want to play games. Sony has come up with a smart gadget that can adapt to almost any handicap: Project Leonardo.
What is Project Leonardo?
Project Leonardo is a gadget under development from Sony, which replaces the control of PlayStation 5. The shape is somewhat similar to the Starship Enterprise. The control buttons are located on the edge of a circle, while the stick has been replaced by a real joystick. The handy thing about this gadget is that you can set it up exactly as you want, which is what disabled people have been waiting for for a while.
This way you can place each button where you want it and adjust the controller in this way with software. In this way, you can turn the Sony PlayStation 5 controller, which is difficult to operate for people with less fine motor skills, into an ideal gaming gadget.
Cooperation with organizations for the disabled
Project Leonardo is a collaboration between Sony and various organizations for the disabled. Using their tips, recommendations and input, Sony’s technical team has been tinkering. That is how they came up with this provisional design for project Leonardo. The final version may look different than this.
Improvements are constantly being made. For example, partly on the advice of the participating organizations, you can also connect devices via four 3.5 mm AUX ports, which also make it possible for certain groups of disabled people to play games. Can a disabled person operate only one or a few body parts? No problem, you can link multiple controllers together as if it were a single controller.
In short, this is inclusivity that will help you. It will probably make a lot of people with a physical disability pretty happy. A single point of criticism that you sometimes hear is that the controller can only be used in combination with a Sony PS5j PlayStation and not, for example, in combination with a PC.
When will this controller be available?
The development of the controller is already quite advanced. What you see here are some prototypes that are close to production. Do you want to think along with the development of the Leonardo project? Then you will find more on Sony’s webpage.
