A few weeks ago, we detailed a Microsoft patent which seemed to showcase new radial software keyboard styles to circumvent the terrible on-screen keyboards currently available on consoles. The new radial software keyboard would allow you to select characters using joysticks, using auto-prediction methods to help you write. This latest patent goes a bit further.

Dubbed "Dual Input Multilayer Keyboard," the patent details how new layers of keys and symbols would surface, based on directional movements on either a joystick, and now, via a touch gesture. This sort of input method would (if it works) not only help solve the cumbersome input methods on console, but perhaps also on tablets and phones, particularly when holding a mobile device in landscape mode.