Touchscreen patents for Microsoft and Sony
Rear-mounted panel plans support PSP2 design reports
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment is a Japanese videogame company specialising in a variety of areas in the...
Seven patent filings by Sony last year appear to corroborate reports that its next-generation PSP will feature touch-sensitive panel on its underside.
One patent suggests that the front-mounted display precisely reflects actions on the rear panel, overcoming the traditional touchscreen problem that "the user's fingers often obscure the part that is to be selected."
Microsoft also appears to be patenting variations on touchscreen controls, in this case using ultraviolet light to create a "topography changing layer" which provides varying tactile feedback - such as "serving as a virtual button."
Is my understanding right that by topography changing, it actually means the screen will change surface profile, rather than just some visual trickery to make it appear so?
If so, if it works reliably, and doesn't come at the cost of becomine overly fragile, this could be awesome. Often when iPhone cames have virtual d-pads and buttons, my fingers miss them, as I am looking at the action, and on a normal controller I'd use touch to compensate. I find on iPhone Eartworm Jim, for instance, becomes unplayable.
If the buttons could actually be created with physical profile, those games become a lot more appealling.
Of course I may have misunderstood, in which case, schucks.
Posted:2 years ago