With Nintendo’s official Switch presentation less than a month away, eager fans may be a bit anxious to see what Nintendo’s new console has to offer.
Luckily for them, a recent leak of patents filed by Nintendo for the Switch shed a bit of light on some of the console’s finer details. Shared by Neogaf User Rosti, the patent info gives a bit of a detailed look at the architecture of the Switch’s main unit, dock and Joycon controllers.
The bulk of the patent info mainly reaffirms several features of the Switch shown off during it’s initial reveal trailer, offering a technical view on how it accomplishes its feats. However, it also seems to reaffirm some of the rumours lingering around the new console.
In my speculative article, the first thing I mentioned was how the Switch seemingly had no touchscreen, as it was not prominently showed off in the trailer. While several rumours came out later suggesting this wasn’t the case, we now have a clearer idea as the diagram for the Switch’s main unit includes a section for a “Touch Panel Controller/Touch Panel.”
Another feature seemingly missing from the initial trailer, and even Jimmy Fallon’s hands on with the Switch was the use of gyroscopic controls, something that was under-utilized on the Wii U. This feature may be returning to the Switch as diagrams for both the main unit and the Joycons include a section for “Angular Velocity Sensors,” which is a fancy way of saying gyro sensors.
Several rumours circulated stating the Switch’s docking station would overclock the Switch’s main unit, allowing for the 1080p 60fps conversion, however these rumours also suggested the Switch’s docking station would have superior fan to prevent overheating of the unit, the diagram for the docking station lists no such section, which seems weird since the Switch’s main unit does include a section for a cooling fan.
Probably the most interesting part of the patent leak is a figure that shows a potential HMD accessory featuring a housing unit that the Switch can be slotted into. While Nintendo did mention that the Switch could have VR support, it does make one wonder how a unit that essentially attaches a 6.2 inch tablet to your face will work.
While this patent info does shed a bit of light on how the Switch will function, it still does not answer some of the more pertinent questions gamers have about the system, namely RAM, Memory, Processing Power, and Battery Life. If nothing else, this serves as a nice little appetizer before Nintendo’s main course on Jan 12, 2017.
