Nintendo touchscreen steering wheel patent application surfaces
Nintendo reckon this is a nifty workaround for handhelds that lack an analog joystick for more proportional control, as well as maintaining a more "realistic" in-game feel than joysticks manage. The on-screen wheel could be pulled left and right, as is traditional, or it could be linked to other movements and gestures, such as dragging a stylus up or down the display.
There's even talk of a new peripheral, a combination strap and thumb-stylus that the gamer could wear on their finger for closer, more precise control than the standard pen. It all seems a little too "obvious" for a patent, at least to us, but then we're not the USPTO.
![](https://www.slashgear.com/img/gallery/nintendo-touchscreen-steering-wheel-patent-application-surfaces/nintendo-dsi-steering-wheel-patent-1.jpg)
[via GoRumors]