It's no secret that Nintendo's already turned us on to the idea of touching, but it should be noted that we're always open to more suggestions, hypnotic or otherwise. Well, how about touching with two fingers? That seems to be the general idea behind this patent for a DS-like device that, apart from being decidedly hideous, allows touch screen input from two positions simultaneously. Needless to say, the images do a better job of explaining this than the actual patent document. Some of those formal sentences could easily incapacitate small children.
The minor mystery with this device is how exactly it fits into Nintendo's product line. The foreign patent was only filed on July 29, 2004, a time in which Nintendo was already preparing the DS for a November launch. This looks like it could have been a more adventurous DS prototype, but that wouldn't explain the late filing of the patent. One could conceive that this is the early inkling of a DS follow-up, though that too seems doubtful.
Controlling a racecar with two fingers just doesn't seem like it would be at all comfortable, and the thought of using more than one stylus at a time is frightening on several different levels. Perhaps Nintendo intended to release a compass-like (not the directional kind) stylus for use in...well...we really don't know. For all intents and purposes, this is just a DS with one minor alteration. We probably shouldn't have gotten so excited about it.
Hang on. Have a look at the Patent Office's URL. Nintendo RS? Haven't we heard that somewhere before?
[via NintendoDS Advanced, thanks Iwatasan! Image credit: Joystiq]
