Sony filed for an interesting patent in 2010 that shows it has technology that resembles Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U game console. Titled Position-Dependent Gaming 3-D controller, and Handheld as a Remote, the patent shows that the game company is at the very least interested in a controller or mobile device with a built-in display to be used as an input device for a console game.

The concept is similar to the Wii U, which was unveiled at E3 last year. The device shows objects onscreen and interacts with the objects on the television while acting as a controller. It suggest that the next-generation game consoles will embrace touchscreen tablets in a big way.

Below is a description of how the device is supposed to function:

Methods and systems for using a position of a mobile device with an integrated display as an input to a video game or other presentation are presented. Embodiments include rendering an avatar on a mobile device such that it appears to overlay a competing user in the real world. Using the mobile device’s position, view direction, and the other user’s mobile device position, an avatar (or vehicle, etc.) is depicted at an apparently inertially stabilized location of the other user’s mobile device or body. Some embodiments may estimate the other user’s head and body positions and angles and reflect them in the avatar’s gestures.

The device is position-dependent, and the application only describes it as a “mobile device,” so it’s difficult to know whether it’s a handheld such as the PlayStation Vita or a separate game controller designed for a future console. Still, it’s only a patent application, and Sony may only be covering their bases for future control possibilities.

It has been said in the past that the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 combination can do what Nintendo’s Wii U can do. Perhaps Sony was way ahead of us on that one.

Check out the additional images below:

[Via US Patent Office]