If you have an affinity for trivia about oddball patents, you might remember a few years ago when Sony had designs for a biometric controller. Apparently, that wasn't just a flight of fancy, as PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny said it was among the ideas they tested for the system.

"We had a long research project where we looked at pretty much any idea that we could think of," Cerny told Stuff.tv (via PushSquare). "Would it help to measure the galvanic response of the skin? We tried out a tremendous number of things--and then we went to the game teams to ask them what they thought they could use from the controller."

Apparently the stress sensors didn't make the cut. The original patent called for three sources of bio-feedback: skin moisture, heart rhythm, and muscle movements. These could be used, according to the patent, to make a sniper rifle become more or less steady depending on your stress, tense up to withstand an attack, or get an adrenaline boost for faster movement. It could also take a more background role, like shifting difficulty level of music dynamically.