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New Nintendo patent application - Nintendo NX related?

United States Patent Application 20150261321

Filed: 02/19/2015
Published: 09/17/2015

Abstract:
An example operation apparatus includes: a direction input operation section 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 a rotation operation section which 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 which is an operation section capable of being rotationally operated.

Don't have time to go deeper right now (at work), but it seems to mention some kind of clickable/rotary L/R shoulder buttons.

patent_app_1wqkcy.png


patent_app_2zlkp1.png
patent_app_3rak9x.png


patent_app_4vmkem.png
 
Who knows if it's NX, but I've always wanted that on a controller. Would be amazing for a weapon selection wheel, just rotate the clicky wheel.
 

dc89

Member
As long as that's a handheld gaming system. Please don't make another home console with a tablet style controller.
 

Taker666

Member
So basically it sounds like replacing the L/R shoulder buttons with a mouse scroll wheel?

Could be useful for quickly scrolling back and forth for items/weapons etc (handy if they aren't going to have a second screen)
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
So the important part is about the shoulder buttons or wheels or whatever they seem to be putting there, as far as I understand that gibberish?
 

Broken Joystick

At least you can talk. Who are you?
OP is not Rosti, impostor!

An information processing apparatus comprising: an operation section on which an operation input is performed by a user; and a processing section configured to perform predetermined information processing in accordance with the operation input on the operation section, wherein the operation section includes: a direction input operation section provided on a front surface of a housing of the information processing apparatus and at such a position that, in a state where the information processing 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, the direction input operation section being an operation section for direction input; and a rotation operation section provided on a surface different from the front surface of the housing and at such a position that, in a state where the information processing 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, the rotation operation section being an operation section capable of being rotationally operated, and the processing section performs information processing in accordance with an operation input on at least either one of the direction input operation section and the rotation operation section.

Nintendo patents hands
 

Jackano

Member
Yep looks like L/R shoulder buttons becoming clickable wheels.

Yeah, I don't know. Gamecube analog L/R with final click weren't that usable in game.
Can get some secondary use (inventory browsing possibilities?) though but nothing revolutionary.

Edit: And come on people try to think one sec please, patents schemes are examples, the picture is not supposed to mean anything related to an actual device, just to show the patented feature, which are the L/R wheels in this case.
 
It's literally a patent for holding the Wii U Gamepad.

..............

Nope, looks to be related to rotation of the shoulder buttons. Perhaps scrollwheel/clickable shoulder buttons, as on the middle of a mouse?

Looks kinda big for a handheld. And only two buttons instead of four?

NX reveal will be fun. No X or Y button is interesting...

The illustration doesn't represent the final device...
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
So the important part is about the shoulder buttons or wheels or whatever they seem to be putting there, as far as I understand that gibberish?

The same impression I'm getting from the images / this thread's impressions.
 

Rosur

Member
Seems like the handheld, or controller for the NX (screen to support Backwards compatibility with the WII U)
 

jeffers

Member
Why are people fixating on the sketch... It's a sketch. The button numbers have nothing to do with the patent. They aren't going to put straight nx sketches in a patent >.>
 

Zalman

Member
Why are people fixating on the sketch... It's a sketch. The button numbers have nothing to do with the patent. They aren't going to put straight nx sketches in a patent >.>
That doesn't change the fact that it's weird there's only two face buttons, whether it's the final product or not.
 
Why are people fixating on the sketch... It's a sketch. The button numbers have nothing to do with the patent. They aren't going to put straight nx sketches in a patent >.>

Tomorrow's headline:

NINTENDO NX CONTROLLER HAS ONLY TWO FACE BUTTONS AND WILL SHIP IN WHITE FIRST; FLOATING HANDS INCLUDED IN PRO PACK
 
Nope, looks to be related to rotation of the shoulder buttons. Perhaps scrollwheel/clickable shoulder buttons, as on the middle of a mouse?





The illustration doesn't represent the final device...

Ah ok. So it seems the patent is primarely for the clickable/rotateble shoulder buttons?
Wonder if it's for the handheld or for the NX controller. Maybe the handheld will be the NX controller. That's the exciting part of the NX, I have no idea what it's going to be or look like.
 

ekim

Member
I guess the picture is just an example. The patent is about the rotary buttons if I read that correctly.
 

valouris

Member
Edit: I should read more carefully.

Can't imagine very cool uses for clickable mouse wheels for L/R. I wish they just went back to analog.
 

TheMoon

Member
The amount of buttons is very odd.

Don't look at the amount of buttons. The patent is not about the device itself, just those rotary shoulder buttons.

edit: yea like KingSnake says, this stuff is entirely irrelevant here.
 

KingBroly

Banned
Spinning the shoulder button can be used to emulate putting balls into Pachinko machines, Konami shall live on!

Presumably you'd get R1-3 and L1-3 out of turning and pressing, but in terms of actual usability during gameplay...dunno how feasible that is.

Gotta be honest, I never even thought about this kinda thing as a possibility, but DAMN if it doesn't scream Nintendo.
 
That could be nice for in action menu, weapon changes etc.. i guess ?



That alone is kind of a good thing imo. I mean, its basically a mouse wheel on PC. You can use your PC without it... but really, its not the same at all without. And theres a lot of games I could see benefit from that. Any game using multiple items/weapons basically.
 
That could be nice for in action menu, weapon changes etc.. i guess ?

If it's a clicky scroll wheel it would be useful mainly for things like that, but if it's analogue then it could give you some fairly fine control over movement in game as well - it's the kind of thing that you could maybe assign as "tweaking" movement control in something like a flight game, letting you make the gross movements with the thumbsticks and fine adjustments with the shoulder wheels.

You could also use it for other things to do with character control - instead of mapping "dodge" as a digital button that gives you a single dodge move, why not map it to a shoulder wheel and give you control over the speed/direction of the dodge? Or you could use it as a "rewind" in a time-control platformer to give you intuitive control over the speed of a rewind to get you back to the precise moment you wanted. There are probably plenty of other uses beyond simple menu control, and having it at your fingertips when you're holding the controller makes it natural to do.
 

ramparter

Banned
Tomorrow's headline:

NINTENDO NX CONTROLLER HAS ONLY TWO FACE BUTTONS AND WILL SHIP IN WHITE FIRST; FLOATING HANDS INCLUDED IN PRO PACK

Good, I never wanted to have too many buttons. White is the also good, because we have so many black consoles. Floating hands can also be useful for some people I guess (ex: Jaime Lannister)
 

Sandfox

Member
Presumably you'd get R1-3 and L1-3 out of turning and pressing, but in terms of actual usability during gameplay...dunno how feasible that is.

Gotta be honest, I never even thought about this kinda thing as a possibility, but DAMN if it doesn't scream Nintendo.

To me it seems like this could free up buttons for additional actions.
 
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