Nintendo Files a New Patent for a Fancy Object Detection Device

I'm guessing that all NX leaks will now suddenly start including this feature.

Looks...odd. Maybe NX doesn't support amiibo and needs this thingy?

Psst. The link to the saddle ends with Error 404. You may want to check if the link was typed correctly.

Isn't that just the amiibo scanner they released at amiibo launch for old 3ds that don't have the thingy built in like the Wii u gamepad and new 3ds do? Maybe this patent just expands upon it with new functionality since the amiibo scanner is basically the Same as the skylanders portal.

Ha, I have no clue what this means. I'm really curious, though, it seems like this might actually make it to production.

@TheDavyStar
Maybe NX won't include it yet to keep the cost down. Then they'll release New Nintendo NX with this feature built in.

amiibo anti-piracy? nlife did a review of a hockey puck taht holds amiibo data. this one would require the figure itself to visually scan as well. just my dos sentimos.

Spot on @Bolt05. My first thought was the 3DS amiibo reader especially given it was a 2014 patent. Nintendo do lots of patients and nintendolife done an article mentioning patients don't always look like final product. I think that's one of these cases

I'm afraid we're looking at another gimmicky console.

Why not just a powerful system with a simple controller, Nintendo? That's all the crowd wants.

They can patent all they want but everyone knows not everything makes it off the drawing board.(thankfully)

@Yasume The market does not need a third console that is the same as the other 2. We have a saturated video console market and Nintendo MUST do it differently to survive.

@Chandlero it wouldn't be the same, it would have Nintendo games & 3rd party games.....different!!

@Ichiban The GameCube showed that this is indeed good for us Nintendo fans but absolutely not good for Nintendo's sale numbers and its future.

And now the situation is even worse for Nintendo since PS4 and XBoxOne have already almost the whole market. Nintendo MUST do something new. There is no other way.

I got it! The new NX controller is an orange juicer! It's genius

Now let's see em make a convincing 3D print out of that...

This has nothing to do with Amiibo from what I can tell. To me it looks like a kind of portable Lidar (google it). Basically what they're talking about is a 360 degree version of the Kinect. Pretty cool.... and the way they're describing it it wouldn't cos that much either.

@skywake And what would you make from that smart phone carousel on the right, then?

@TheRealThanos
They show a list of different use cases. The first image above is them showing how it could be used with a custom flexible display. The second shows the render being displayed through a more standard device. The third shows the sort of usable range the device would have.

If you click the link they also have an example that shows someone controlling a game by interacting with something printed on some paper. There's another one showing someone using a physical steering wheel that the device would then detect.

So yeah, it's basically a 360 degree kinect.

I think it's a blender fuelled by pets and children. You throw them into the blender and watch the blood level rise. As you get more blood you unlock Mii costumes and My Nintendo points (hence the smartphone attachment). Pets equal gold points, children equal platinum points.

It's Nintendo going in a thrillingly violent new direction, or possibly an attempt to resurrect Count Yamauchi.

Nintendo is trolling everyone with all these bogus patent release.

@skywake Yeah, I already had a quick look at that full patent. Busy right now, so I didn't have the time yet to fully read and digest it, but that still leaves the question how (or why) you would use a smart phone, no: SEVERAL smart phones to act as a Kinect-like device.

Switch on the forward facing camera and spin the carousel? Most phones have an automatic screen lock, so the camera's wouldn't stay on unless they would be in active use, so it seems to me that it wouldn't work in a practical way.

Weird, all of it as most of the patents are, and in the end nearly nothing of it is coming back in any actual devices, other than some technologies described in the patents, but that won't be visible in the final designs for the most part.

It's just like concept cars and fashion shows: you get to see all these almost alien designs, and in the shops you only see "normal" versions of these products, although ideas of the concepts may very well be incorporated into them...

@TheRealThanos
I'm pretty damn sure they weren't using the smartphone camera. The camera is in the device itself. The smartphone was just there as an example of a "device" that could display what was being captured. And it was just an example of how it could be used not a description of what it was.

Explaining the idea itself a bit more. If you had two of these in different locations plus the custom curved display? You could effectively make a 360 degree video call. It's actually a pretty neat concept when you think about it.

@Nintendian you know what, I think you're absolutely correct. What better way to hide your awesome idea console than to hide it amongst a bunch of red herrings. Could also oust the internal leakers.

Its for a VR Amiibo Chess Game!

@Pahvi
That's basically what this is, it's just a more compact version of it. Google uses a similar sort of thing to create the images for Google Street View. It's not a new idea but obviously Nintendo are trying to patent a few ideas around how it could be used for games.

@skywake That actually does sound interesting. I don't think we're going to see a lot of it in final products, though...
Then again, it IS Nintendo that we're talking about, so who knows?

Actually, this deluge of patent stuff might also be in response to the patent lawsuits Nintendo dealt with recently. They're just covering all their bases, present and future, so they can't get sued again.

Fun fact: Just because Nintendo patents it, doesn't mean it's going to happen! Just thought I'd say that before some news site goes on ahead and says "Could THIS be the NX controller!?"

@NintendoFan64 fun fact companies patent all the time.

not really news but does look cool.

move along all...

Maybe it's a dock to charge and sync your nx handhelds and amiibo wirelessly.

Interesting concept. Maybe not strong enough to base a console on, but I'm sure there could be a few enjoyable experiences if the hardware was cost-effective

This looks interesting, I'm curious to see how everything will turn out. I trust Nintendo will handle it well.

I wonder if they're working on having multiple amiibo active at the same time

Yeah after this plus Nintendo trademarking 3d representations of their characters, I think NX's big gimmick will be social AR via object scanning and possibly even image projection.