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Researchers at Sony have found a way to go back in time to our collective childhoods and find out what we really wanted from our toys. Turns out, it was a remote controlled car with an attached camera that could be sent on remote missions with the PSP. This month, it was revealed that Sony Europe has filed a patent for just such a device, bringing our dreams that much closer to reality.

A camera mounted on top of the car would send back an image to the user’s PSP, which would be used to navigate even outside of the view of the user. According to the patent, the car would come with a built-in microphone to further annoy people or simulate the sound of a racecar. The documents do not explain how the PSP sends a signal to the car, or how far the range extends, but at minimum it should be as far as a typical ad-hoc multiplayer game (maybe 20 meters or so).

When you get bored of chasing your dog around the back yard or trying to look up ladies’ skirts, there are a bunch of other cool things you can do with the car. Bundled software allows you to set a “Augmented reality zone” in which objects you see with the camera will appear on the PSP screen as something altogether different. So, your kitchen table could become a fortress, certain parts of your carpet could be on fire, etc. Basically, the stuff we used to imagine was there all along as kids. It would probably be possible to set up a course like this and race with other players simultaneously, although these details aren’t covered by the patent.

Since this is merely a patent application and not an actual product announcement, we place the odds of this ever being produced at 50/50. Still, if it was released around the holidays with a strong marketing push, it could become a surprise hit with children aged eight to twelve thirty-five.

An "augmented reality" screenshot of the PSP RC car in action.

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