We’re no stranger to seeing Nintendo patent some interesting ideas and while a patent certainly isn’t necessarily a clear indication of what could be coming, it’s still interesting to see what the big N has been cooking up in their hardware labs.
Nintendo filed this patent earlier this year, but it only just popped up online today. The patent drawing appears to show a controller similar to the Wii U GamePad with fewer face buttons on the front, but that’s not what’s of interest here. According to the patent, the shoulder buttons on either side of the controller could function like a scroll-wheel on a mouse.
Perhaps the most interesting information from this patent is that Nintendo intends the controller to be held with both one hand or two, so the wheels will function either by using your thumb to control it, or your index finger depending upon how you’re holding it. Here’s the relevant text from the description.
A configuration example is an operation apparatus enabling an operation input by a user for performing predetermined information processing. The operation apparatus includes a direction input operation section and a rotation operation section. The direction input operation section: is provided on a front surface of a housing of the operation apparatus and at such a position that, in a state where the operation apparatus is held with at least one hand of a user, the direction input operation section is allowed to be operated with a thumb of the hand; and is an operation section for direction input.
The rotation operation section: is provided on a surface different from the front surface of the housing and at such a position that, in a state where the operation apparatus is held with the hand or the other hand of the user, the rotation operation section is allowed to be operated with an index finger of the hand or the other hand; and is an operation section capable of being rotationally operated.
According to the above configuration example, it is possible to provide a new operation apparatus which can effectively utilize an index finger.
In another configuration example, the rotation operation section may be provided at a position included in two of side surfaces of the housing of the operation apparatus. The rotation operation section may be provided at either one of the side surfaces of the housing of the operation apparatus. The rotation operation section may be provided near a position where two of the side surfaces of the housing of the operation apparatus intersect each other. The rotation operation section may be provided at a shoulder portion of the housing.
Of course these patent registrations should be taken with a grain of salt because not everything that passes through the patent office comes to fruition, but how would you feel if this controller belonged to the NX or a similar device?
[via NeoGAF]
