Nintendo Turns Touch Screen Into Steering Wheel

Austin MacKenzie

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Jan 26, 2010
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Nintendo Turns Touch Screen Into Steering Wheel



Nintendo is looking to add more to the DS racing interface with a steering wheel program that keys into the touch screen.

Nintendo has filed a patent [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220100048271%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20100048271&RS=DN/20100048271#bottom] with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a DSi touch screen steering wheel. The program allows the steering of in-game vehicles by turning the wheel with the stylus instead of using the d-pad. The interface is much akin to the Wii's steering wheel in that it allows the player to play racing games as if they were actually driving, except that instead of a physical wheel, you're still steering with the rough equivalent a pencil or with a little needle attached to your finger.

The patent states: "The touch-sensitive functionality of the screen is used in at least some exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementations to allow the video game player to control the position of the steering wheel displayed on the screen. The displayed vehicle steering wheel position, in turn, is used to control the travel motion or direction of the vehicle being simulated. The resulting simulation provides a realistic input control interface obtainable using relatively inexpensive and compact input devices such as those available on conventional portable or other video game play and/or simulation platforms," which, in layman's terms means the intent is to make it more like driving a car using available DSi technology without it costing too much.

While the technology is certainly interesting, what it will do for immersive gameplay has yet to be seen. It's a fairly creative use of the DSi's touch screen, but it's hard to see this not ending up as a gimmick instead of a useful function. Then again, the ability to turn the wheel like a real car may give more traction to steering, and the DS has seen a number of successes with touch screen-based games in the past such as The World Ends With You and Elite Beat Agents, so there's the potential for this to work really well. We'll just have to wait and see.

Source: GoRumors [http://gorumors.com/nintendo-dsi-xl-steering-wheel/275701]


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capacollo

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Nov 17, 2009
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Its one thing to patent the implementation of a touch screen interface but to patent how to use the implemention in a specific way. This is more of a rant than anything as I realize in software this is a common thing to do, similar to how for example Microsoft has a patent in the way it implements a menu system.
 

tomtom94

aka "Who?"
May 11, 2009
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Hate touch screens being used for functions that could be accomplished by buttons or an analog stick, or in this case, a steering wheel.

I'm pretty sure many companies have tried this with the DS touch screen already and failed.
 

Onyx Oblivion

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Sep 9, 2008
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Touch screen only controls make my hand hurt after extended periods. So, as long as there are no Nurburgring length courses, it should be fine.
 

cloudwolf616

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I just hope its not going to cost more money or drive the prices of the games up higher for a feature not everyone will want to use.
 

Sewer Rat

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I hope they still offer the ability to use the D-pad instead. I've always found attempting to use the Touch screen for movement somewhat less than precise.
 

AceDiamond

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Cloudwolf616 said:
I just hope its not going to cost more money or drive the prices of the games up higher for a feature not everyone will want to use.
It's just a bunch of code they have to put in along with the stuff that already exists for the touch screen interface, I doubt it'll be pricey

...though to be honest i'm a bit confused because I could've sworn people did this before. Maybe it'll be more precise or some crap.
 

llafnwod

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Is it just me, or does the wheel in that patent drawing take up a ridiculous proportion of the screen?
 

Izerous

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Good idea Nintendo because I drive home steering with a pencil day after work, it will be like driving car...

And I'm with the others here thinking this ha been done before on a touch screen just can't remember where.
 

cloudwolf616

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AceDiamond said:
Cloudwolf616 said:
I just hope its not going to cost more money or drive the prices of the games up higher for a feature not everyone will want to use.
It's just a bunch of code they have to put in along with the stuff that already exists for the touch screen interface, I doubt it'll be pricey

...though to be honest i'm a bit confused because I could've sworn people did this before. Maybe it'll be more precise or some crap.
Oh thats not to bad than I thought it was going to be some kind of add on You know like the rumble pack was back in the day. They sould improve it so u can use ur fingers instead of the pen for a better feel.
 

RvLeshrac

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Oct 2, 2008
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Psychemaster said:
I swear this was implemented in a game already...
<a href=http://www.gamespot.com/ds/driving/ridgeracerds/index.html?tag=result;title;0>Ridge Racer DS, yes.
 

Covarr

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May 29, 2009
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Can they really patent this, given that RIIIIIDGE RACER already did this?

P.S. Thanks
 

RvLeshrac

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Oct 2, 2008
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Cloudwolf616 said:
if ridge racer havent than ya sure they can.
Since it has to be nonobvious/original, and since prior art precludes it being nonobvious/original, no, they can't. They'll likely be granted the patent anyway, because the people who work our patent offices are drop-dead morons.
 

Quadtrix

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This is going to suck. Using the D-pad is much simpler, as you only have two directions to move in a racing game. Not only will this be awkward, I can just imagine people accidentally lifting the stylus off the screen, causing all hell to break lose in-game.
 

Quadtrix

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This is going to suck. Using the D-pad is much simpler, as you only have two directions to move in a racing game. Not only will this be awkward, I can just imagine people accidentally lifting the stylus off the screen, causing all hell to break lose in-game.
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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I got a feeling this is gonna look sooooo awkward on the commute!
 

TIMESWORDSMAN

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Mar 7, 2008
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Based on the photo, I'm pretty sure Chibi Robo's Park Patrol did something very similar.

The controls were basically the same but they were oversensitive, Causing the car to veer to the left or right. With practice this was usually solved.

I hope the same flaw doesn't appear in this apparatus.

(Q: WTF is Chibi Robo's Park Patrol?
A: An adequate DS sequel to a damn good Game Cube game.)