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Nintendo Patents Projector That Displays Flat Images On Uneven Surfaces

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
I GOT IT!

This will be the 2nd screen.

Many Wii U games had you move the Gamepad around for a 360 view of the action not on screen, sorta like looking through a telescope. What if the NX does the same thing but this time theres no screen. Player 2's controller has the projector on it so the AR functionality is from an angle that everyone in the room can see and possibly interact with the other NXmotes (or whatever they'll be called).

Furthermore its possible that the SCD processes the image only for the projector since you know this has to be a supplemental feature that can't take away from the main game. Very family in the room like. Very Nintendo. Very not likely to happen but I think it sounded good.


Back in the day I guessed that the secret of the then "Revolution Controller" was that it was an upside down optical mouse that moved beyond the realm of the tv. who knows could be close.
 

Speely

Banned
It's just a patent. An interesting one, yes, but patents don't always translate into immediate products. This one in particular could mean A) a forthcoming usage of it that is underwhelming compared to what most folks are probably imagining, or B) something we might see used down the road when it's realistic in a product that the manufacturer isn't taking a loss on.

I feel like this is what could take NX speculation into hyper-WUST mode.
 

Bazry

Member
People seem to be assuming this would act as the TV screen, but what if it was intended to be another 2nd screen for games? Imagine Arkham Knight for example when Batman is talking to Alfred, what if it did something similar to that so they remove the flaw of having to look down at the Gamepad
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
People seem to be assuming this would act as the TV screen, but what if it was intended to be another 2nd screen for games? Imagine Arkham Knight for example when Batman is talking to Alfred, what if it did something similar to that so they remove the flaw of having to look down at the Gamepad

What purpose would serve a second screen with no interaction? Would you pay $200-$300 on top of the NX price for that? Or even $50 more for a shitty low res?
 

ggx2ac

Member
It's just a patent. An interesting one, yes, but patents don't always translate into immediate products. This one in particular could mean A) a forthcoming usage of it that is underwhelming compared to what most folks are probably imagining, or B) something we might see used down the road when it's realistic in a product that the manufacturer isn't taking a loss on.

I feel like this is what could take NX speculation into hyper-WUST mode.

Plus as pointed out in my last post. Megachips do LSI and have worked with Macronix and Nintendo for a while.

They are fabless manufacturers that does a lot of R&D work with having over 1000 patents in Japan.

Maybe this was them researching something while making a solution for Nintendo's other patents regarding IR sensors listed here.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1114538

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1195969

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1204802

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1261569

Edit: I added in one more patent that I missed.

Megachips aren't listed in any of these patents but the patent posted today sounds similar to these. Maybe Megachips is doing the work to get one of these IR related patents to work and they ended up getting some R&D done because of it. (Check out Megachips about us info to understand what they do.)

Edit: Again, reposting this here.


ggx2ac said:
http://www.megachips.co.jp/english/company/features.html

Internationally renowned MegaChips is a fabless manufacturer of devices for the mobile and IoT industries. Our core technologies are critical to a wide range of applications for imaging, audio, communications and more.

Because we are fabless, we can focus our efforts on managing resources, R&D and creating new technologies for value-added applications.

Best to just read what they are in the link.

Edit: There was also this thread so it actually was already known.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1224114

Rösti;204721020 said:
Today, on May 26, 2016, MegaChips Corporation sent out a notice regarding its 26th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on June 23, 2016 (Thursday) 10 am (JST). The notice includes information on principal businesses, directors and more. It also includes the status of an important business alliance between Macronix, Megachips and Nintendo:

...

More at the link.
 

Speely

Banned
Awesome summary snip.

Man... given the possible tech that could be involved here, this device could be so many different things. Seeing all this stuff I have been digesting over time put together like this just makes me wonder even more what the hell Nintendo is going for.

Thanks for the nice recap and thoughts, btw.
 

Bazry

Member
What purpose would serve a second screen with no interaction? Would you pay $200-$300 on top of the NX price for that? Or even $50 more for a shitty low res?

Nintendo likes their gimmicks. Whilst playing Zelda, they could assign the Navi of the game to the projector, so when they talk to you they pop out infront of you for you to see. When playing Splatoon, a quick flick of a button could bring the map up so you can see whos winning without having to look down or stop playing

I'm sure there loads of different things they could, it obviously won't have touch interaction but i'm sure they could assign controller interaction to it, so you could check messages for example if they any get some sort of party chat going
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Nintendo likes their gimmicks. Whilst playing Zelda, they could assign the Navi of the game to the projector, so when they talk to you they pop out infront of you for you to see. When playing Splatoon, a quick flick of a button could bring the map up so you can see whos winning without having to look down or stop playing

I'm sure there loads of different things they could, it obviously won't have touch interaction but i'm sure they could assign controller interaction to it, so you could check messages for example if they any get some sort of party chat going

You didn't fully answer. Would you pay $200 on top of the normal price of NX just for that?
 
Huh. Who was that guy who was claiming the NX had a projector in that other thread?

Talked about it in an old NX thread:

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=211881876

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=215303704

However, a decent quality pico projector would help with that as you project an image of decent size.

Too expensive for quality ones still.

Altought maybe for other uses like projecting into transparent controllers, interactive UIs in a surface at close range. Maybe.

Btw, if its projecting inside an enclosed surface, like the controller i mention, it solves the lighting conditions problem, since it would offer good contrast.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
of course not, but then again I doubt this is anything to do with NX and something for the future when technology wouldn't cost that much

For the future, yes, but then it will be much more likely to be something AR related than coming back to the second screen gaming.

It looks like s**t and I even wonder why are they wasting their time with this.

It's called research and a lot of companies are doing this. Not every patent is used in mass production in the end.
 
Damn thats something I would have seen patented by Philips or Sony or Toshiba (E.g. the guys who produce beamers). But Nintendo? If marketed right and actually working with low light and all of that, it could be huge. Probably some years from now but yeah
 

retroman

Member
The tech sounds pretty cool, but isn't it just a continuation of that QoL idea Nintendo was toying with?

fb7d2e3b3d7d6805fdfe8a89025d337b52db01e5dcf12ee4a713108c46b71dc7_large
 

TunaLover

Member
That would explain the detachable controllers, you need the device project stuff still.
Do you think NX could have a TV out optional still?
 

ggx2ac

Member
Damn thats something I would have seen patented by Philips or Sony or Toshiba (E.g. the guys who produce beamers). But Nintendo? If marketed right and actually working with low light and all of that, it could be huge. Probably some years from now but yeah

The tech sounds pretty cool, but isn't it just a continuation of that QoL idea Nintendo was toying with?

fb7d2e3b3d7d6805fdfe8a89025d337b52db01e5dcf12ee4a713108c46b71dc7_large

Check my post above in this page. In the OP, the patent is shared between Nintendo and Megachips as there are multiple inventors listed from each company.

Nintendo has patented a lot of projection technology or similar patents.

Something is going on and Megachips is making an LSI chip for Nintendo for something and I think it has to do with one of the patents listed in my post.

I think this patent is just a result of them doing R&D while they were trying to make something from one of the patents.
 

Jackano

Member
It's called research and a lot of companies are doing this. Not every patent is used in mass production in the end.

I know but my point was it looks like a cheap tech who will never be able to have a good image quality no matter what effort they are putting in this. Totally pointless to try to solve that problem.
And lol at people thinking NX.
 

mclem

Member
That... heavily negates one of the biggest issues with projectors, if it works well. (The other, of course, being having to find a suitably uniformly-coloured surface - but couldn't this technology also distort the image to allow for the difference in base colour?
 

trugs26

Member
It's surprising to hear that Nintendo actually got this patent. What with things like the illumiroom, you'd think this patent would've already been taken. Looks like Nintendo potentially has a gold nugget of a patent on their hands.
 
There was a Lenovo tablet (Yoga 2 Pro) which included a projector in the hinge.

Since NX isn't a machine that's tied to the TV I could see a Projector edition of the NX being a thing. I mean, it's a device which basically offers local multiplayer with split controllers anywhere, any time. So you could project, I dunno, Just Dance 2018 on to any surface, take out the two controllers (and Wii Remotes in your bag) and get playing.

Though that tablet was $500 so...

Edit: Maybe Nintendo could release a dock for the NX with the projector functionality built-in, along with an extra battery inside.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
There was a Lenovo tablet (Yoga 2 Pro) which included a projector in the hinge.

Since NX isn't a machine that's tied to the TV I could see a Projector edition of the NX being a thing. I mean, it's a device which basically offers local multiplayer with split controllers anywhere, any time. So you could project, I dunno, Just Dance 2018 on to any surface, take out the two controllers (and Wii Remotes in your bag) and get playing.

Though that tablet was $500 so...

Edit: Maybe Nintendo could release a dock for the NX with the projector functionality built-in, along with an extra battery inside.

35 lumens, 854x480 pixels. Really worth the additional cost, Wii U style. /s
 
35 lumens, 854x480 pixels. Really worth the additional cost, Wii U style. /s

I forgot that bit. Okay, it's not happening. See my edit though, that's probably a more likely prospect if it *did* happen. I also only suggested a projector *edition* of the NX, not that every single NX unit had this functionality built-in.

Based on Iwata's words, NX software will be a lot more portable, which suggests that it won't be tied down to a single hardware configuration. And projector functionality could be built in at the system level anyway.
 
I really hope this is just a projector Nintendo plans on making. It'd be cool to see them branch out slowly into more than just games and the proposed QoL stuff.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
How much of a problem is this, really? It's not too hard to find a flat surface to project onto. I mean, I suppose it's a nice convenience, but with the view independence and all it seems like a lot of trouble for a possibly small-ish benefit. I have my doubts this will be commercialised any time soon, unless it's super cheap to implement.

Piggybacking on this, though, I think it might be more useful if there was a way to distort the colours of projected pixels to compensate for the coloring of the surfaces you're projecting onto...if that is possible. Large-ish flat surfaces are rarely hard to come by for projecting onto, but optimally coloured or flat-coloured surfaces for ideal projection results can be.
 

Neff

Member
I've often proposed the idea that Nintendo may be dicking around with projection technology, so this confirmation doesn't surprise me at all.
 
I love this idea and it gets my hyped for whatever 'gimmick' the NX has. Just due to price alone I don't think this is in the NX but I absolutely love the idea. Much better than the Wii Us gimmick.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
It's always interesting seeing what kinds of experiments Nintendo's researching or considering for the future.

I don't believe this one will be part of NX but it's still neat.
 

georly

Member
This seems perfect for something like wii fit where I may not necessarily want to exercise in a room with a tv in it. Or for the sleeping doodad so it can project my metrics on the wall/ceiling when i wanna check on the.

Edit: This is not a useful peripheral to me in terms of gaming. When I game I want it to either be on a tiny screen (because i'm not near a tv or a place where i could normally be playing video games) OR i'd be playing on a tv. There are very few places where I'd make good use of an impromptu projector. This sounds amazing if you're like 5 years old and don't have a tv in your room and want to play mario kart with your brother/sister.
 
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