Nintendo files patent for periscope-like Wiimote attachment

Nintendo ought to up the ante when it comes to video games as their market share with the Wii has been eroding for some time now, and with the stronger yen, their exports are not making them as much money as they would have liked – gone are the days when you see a Nintendo DS being held up, with a speech bubble saying, “It prints money!” I guess the engineers over at Nintendo do know the situation and have been working hard to help boost up Nintendo’s fortunes – hence this particular patent for a device that will add a touch panel to the Wiimote, relying on an infrared LED as well as mirrors in order to feed information concerning your finger’s position into the Wiimote’s IR sensor. This particular patent describes using it as a mouse pointer or a drawing interface.

While such technology does not emulate the WiiPad to a T, we also know that this touch panel is just meant for greater control flexibility and accuracy, and will not function as a display. No idea on what Nintendo has in store for this periscope-like attachment down the road, but knowing their house, it would be something cool – hopefully exorcising the ghosts of failed peripherals or consoles like the Virtual Boy in the process.