Nintendo Patents Wii Remote accessory - adds touchscreen, looks ridiculous.

Full story at Siliconera.

"The magic of mirrors makes the device work. When you touch the pad an infrared LED turns on and the amplified beams from the LED bounce off the mirror and are interpreted by the controller as position data. If you don't touch the pad, the remote works just like a standard Wii remote."

The fact that most patents never get released need to be pointed out

The fact that most patents never get released need to be pointed out

LaytonsCat

basically this

While it may simply be them sitting on a patent, it would solve the issue of WiiU controllers being potentially too expensive - making it difficult to maintain the family/party friendly ethos the Wii had.

I'm going to say that this never comes out. It strikes me as a preventative measure more than something they intend to release.

If anything, it's in the very early stages of existence. It would probably change or be scrapped.

not really important.

Lets say if Apple decided to get in the console gaming business and create a controller like that, this would just be a preventative measure towards that.

While it may simply be them sitting on a patent, it would solve the issue of WiiU controllers being potentially too expensive - making it difficult to maintain the family/party friendly ethos the Wii had.

shinrabanshou

Im going with that this is never going to get released. If anything, this is here simple to prevent others from stealing their idea.

Probably to stop other companies from adding touchscreens to their controllers...
Or even third parties releasing something as horid as this for the Wiimote.
However, If Nintendo does release something like this, they should have the Wiimote held vertically and an add on that sticks out from the side (top when held vertically).

... By the way. Make it flat.