Nintendo has remained largely silent on its plans for its next console, codenamed NX, since the system was casually announced earlier this year. A newly published patent application from Nintendo, first filed in June, shows off one possible design: an innovative handheld that tightly integrates embedded analog sticks with a surrounding oval touchscreen that reaches to the very edge of the device.

Unlike the Wii U or the DS portables—which have small rectangular touchscreens placed between more traditional button-based controls on each side— the patent shows an elliptical touchscreen that dominates almost the entire front surface of the device, smartphone-style. The only break in that surface is two small holes on either side for "operation sticks" (read: analog thumbsticks) that extend deep into the controller. The tops of these clickable sticks sit nearly flush with the screen, letting players move their thumbs smoothly from analog controls to the touchscreen directly adjacent. (The patent also suggests the possibility of a 3DS-style parallax barrier display that allows for "stereoscopic view with naked eyes").

Other similar cutouts from the touchscreen surface could be included for buttons, "cross buttons," (read: d-pads), jog dials, etc., according to the patent, and shoulder buttons allow for further, traditional tactile input. The key is that all of these traditional controls would be embedded directly "within" the touchscreen via holes in the surface, rather than sitting off to the side in a separate plastic housing, as with existing Nintendo hardware.

“A higher feeling of immersion...”

The patent suggests a few uses for this tight melding of physical controls and touchscreen display. Virtual buttons could be placed on the touchscreen right next to the thumbpads, for example, providing context-sensitive inputs that change throughout the game. In-game items might be used simply by touching them, or music notes could fall directly into the thumbstick areas in a music game.

The touchscreen can also provide a "guide image" in "help mode," according to the patent, telling players the function of each thumbstick and button right next to where they are in real space. A circular menu could be placed around the thumbsticks as well, allowing for different options to be chosen directly with different tilts of the thumbstick; the patent spends a lot of time describing a quick-entry hybrid keyboard that could work in this way.

Developers have attempted some of these kinds of hybrid input ideas using the touchscreens on Nintendo hardware in the past. The problem in most of those cases is that it's exceedingly awkward to reach your thumb back and forth between the button/stick controls and the relatively far-off touchscreens on the Wii U and DS systems during gameplay. This patent seems intent on fixing that awkwardness by placing the traditional controls and touchscreen controls as close together as possible.

The patent acknowledges that the user's thumb will naturally block part of the image when using the thumbsticks. On the other hand, the patent argues, "since the own thumb overlaps on the image... of the virtual space to be seen, a higher feeling of immersion can be obtained by the player." The patent describes a sense of "ambience" created when the touchscreen seems to make sparks and flames emanate directly from the thumbs directing the thumbsticks, for instance.

At points, the patent gets a bit philosophical about the need for new design to fix problems inherent to portable game hardware. "To miniaturize a game apparatus, it is necessary to reduce the number of the operation buttons, to make a size of the operation button small, or to make a size of the display panel small," the patent reads. "On the other hand, a game apparatus becomes large if it is intended to enlarge a size of the display panel." The proposed solution here maximizes the usable display/touch area without enlarging the controller/system itself by placing those traditional inputs within the touchscreen area and by pushing that screen right up to the edge of the rounded design.

Is this the NX?

It's never a good idea to assume that a mere patent application will turn into an actual product, no matter how intriguing the idea seems. That said, there is some circumstantial evidence that this patent does indeed describe the direction Nintendo is (or was) planning for the mysterious NX.

For one, late last year The Japan Times reported that Nintendo would be the first customer for Sharp's free-form display technology. That technology, which allows for non-rectangular LCD panels with cutouts for different physical inputs, matches up almost perfectly with the design discussed in the parent.

For another, the patent describes a self-contained unit ("a hand-held type") with integrated processing capabilities and its own card slot for game cartridges, SD cards, and even SIM cards. A Wall Street Journal report earlier this year suggested the NX would be a mobile/console hybrid, including a portable device that "could either be used in conjunction with the console or taken on the road for separate use" (unlike the Wii U GamePad, which only works near its console base station). The device described in this patent would certainly fit that bill, even though the patent contains absolutely no mention of integration with a separate console.

Even if the NX doesn't end up resembling this patent exactly (or even remotely), its publication provides the best public evidence yet of what Nintendo's hardware designers are considering for the follow-up to the Wii U and 3DS. Back in March, late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata described the NX as "the new hardware system with a brand-new concept." Earlier this month, current Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima told Time that the NX is "different and obviously a new experience," that is not "the next version of Wii or Wii U. It’s something unique and different. It’s something where we have to move away from those platforms in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base.”

A device that's in any way similar to the one described in this patent would certainly merit those descriptions.