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Patent Supports PSP2 Rear Touch Pad Rumor

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-always-thought-touchpads-were-too-easy-to-see dept.

itwbennett writes "According to Electronista, a series of patents filed 13 months ago and published late last week by Sony Computer Entertainment America may confirm rumors of a PSP2 with back touchpad. Of course, they could also confirm the rumored PlayStation phone. 'In either case,' says Peter Smith, 'exactly what interactions will be performed via the rear touch pad remain to be seen. Without adding a cursor to the display it couldn't be anything very precise (in other words, you wouldn't want to have to tap on a specific spot on the UI), but scrolling through menus, swiping to select items in inventory or panning around a map all seem like viable touch-enabled gaming UI interactions that you can do 'blind.' In shooter games you'll often have a gun reticle (essentially a cursor) anyway so aiming could be done via a rear pad.'"

3 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Ghost of the turbotouch 360 calling by assemblerex · · Score: 3, Informative

    People don't want touch. They prefer buttons.

    1. Re:Ghost of the turbotouch 360 calling by polyp2000 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yep but 80-90% of iPhone games are pretty shit! or low-accurracy, puzzle , block/breaking type casual games.

      You buy a dedicated device for gaming having a touch pad alone would be doomed to fail. iPhone and Android devices are more than capable of throwing out enough polygons to match the current generation of handheld consoles (There are some visually impressive FPS's out there ) . but as a gaming platform they suck even simple games like breakout just dont play well. I have to agree with Assemblerex on this one.

      That said , in addition to the regular array of buttons / pads - a touch pad might be a nice addition as a complementary control element - but replacing them with just a touch pad is a big mistake.

      N.

      --
      Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
  2. MS research labs did it years ago. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    How is sony filing for patents on this when MS research labs had prototypes of this running years ago. Did they neglect to patent it? See LucidTouch (http://www.patrickbaudisch.com/projects/lucidtouch/index.html)

    It's incredibly useful for tablet-type devices and would be great on a psp-type thing. I've been waiting for some to announce a tablet with this feature to no avail. >_>