Wii patents go into strange territory, including teddy bears and bicycles!

5 February 2008

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Posted by:Josh

Nintendo has registered a number of new Wii patents that go into some strange territory.

Of course, strange Wii peripherals are a dime a dozen as companies cash in on the Wii craze, but so far this hasn’t come from Nintendo themselves . . . well, unless you count the Wii Fit Balance Board.

Some of the patents (which are simply Wii casings like the Wii Racing Wheel that will come with Mario Kart), are logical and have even already been done by third parties. These include Wii tennis racket, baseball bat and fishing rod peripherals.

But others are very strange, and they include what look to be a bicycle, motorbike helmet, chair, teddy bear and some kind of virtual reality “Nintendo Virtual Boy“-style headset.

The actual patent reads like this: A video game controller for a video game and a receptor assembly may include a controller core unit including a housing formed with a top, bottom and opposite sides, at least the top having a plurality of control buttons thereon; and a base portion provided with a first connector; a receptor having a shape substantially similar to a component appearing in the video game. The receptor may be a gun-shaped sub-unit with a barrel portion and a gripper portion with an open slot adapted to receive the core unit.

And now it’s time to speculate why Nintendo would register these patents and to come up with some uses for them! Of course, companies often register patents and never do anything with them, but if it’s anyone that could find use for a teddy bear-shaped peripheral it’d be Nintendo. — Via 22hundred