Nintendo patent explains Switch 2 Joy-Cons’ “mouse operation” mode

A month has passed since we first heard rumors that the new jokes of Switch 2 can slide along a flat surface to function as a computer mouse. Now a recently published patent submitted by Nintendo seems to confirm this function, and describes how it will work.

The international patent was filed in the World Intellectual Property Organization in January 2023, but it was published only on the WIPO website on Thursday. The patent in the Japanese language illustrations correspond to what we saw in Switch 2 Joy-Con, precisely, it creates an English abstract, describing the “mouse sensor”, which can “detect the reflected light from the detected surface, the light changes when moving over movement over A discovered surface … ”, like any number of optical computer mice. Schematic drawings in the patent show how the light source and light sensor are compressed inside joy, with a built -in lens for directing light for each.

The machine translation of the full text of the patent describes the controller as “a new input device that can be used as a mouse and another than mouse.” In the mouse mode, as described in the patent, the user raises the external edge of the controller with his ladown and puts on the inner edge, “for example, on a table or the like.”

In this configuration, the user’s thumb can still access the analog stick (which now indicates horizontally), while the pointer and middle fingers are located so that the two buttons of the shoulder “can work like, for example, the right button button and the left button and the left button and Left button -ka, button, “according to the patent. The patent describes this configuration as “simple to hold” or “easy to grab”. It also goes to large lengths to explain how the shoulder buttons are wrapped around the curved upper corner of the controller and, thus, “easy to press”, pressing either down or closer to the horizontal finger.