A few months ago, Nintendo went ham on its patents, covering all kinds of bases for potential ideas and mechanics regarding consoles and controllers, all presumably in preparation for the NX. The news has slowed down since then, but just yesterday a new patent made by the company was discovered.
The patent depicts a handheld device that includes an infrared camera and distance sensor. Additionally, the handheld is said to include gesture recognition, distance measuring, and even a projector and GPS receiver. While it’s not quite clear what exactly these features would be used for, they could certainly be interesting, to say the least.
It’s also important to note that though this patent was just discovered yesterday and only recently published in the West, the original patent application in Japan was filed back in September of 2014, meaning this isn’t exactly “new”. Still, it’s the first time many of us are hearing of this.
The patent takes the form of three applications, with the first explaining how things get detected around the handheld, and the second and third expanding on this idea. The latter two also emphasize the fact that gestures and distance can trigger things such as vibration and sound output.
Obviously, as with any other patent, we shouldn’t automatically expect to see this come to fruition – a patent never means a solid idea that will reach completion. However, it’s always interesting to see what kind of ideas Nintendo decides to cover in the event they do implement something like this.
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Written by George Comatas
As a wannabe social media personality and professional in the world of sarcasm, George does his best to always adapt to the changing world around him. He considers himself a maverick: a true-to-heart gamer with the mind of a pop star. Whether this makes him revolutionary or a setback, he's yet to find out. But one thing’s for sure; he's one-of-a-kind.
