A story out of siliconera.com reports that Nintendo of Japan has filed a patent for yet another new Wii-mote Accessory, for a console that is already on it's last leg, and once Skyward Sword is released will be pretty much done.
Pretty stupid right? Yeah, until you consider that the Wii-mote is going to be compatible and used very frequently with the Wii U, as well. The patent's design clearly shows functionality that lends itself to the newer console rather than the old one; essentially the device will slide onto the controller and form a touchpad for it.
The accessory uses mirrors to turn your old Wii-mote into a touchpad: "When you touch the pad an infrared LED turns on and the amplified beams from the LED bounce off the mirror and are interpreted by the controller as position data. If you don’t touch the pad, the remote works just like a standard Wii remote."
And since the Wii U has a new controller with its own built-in touchpad, this accessory would open up the possibility of other players with the same functionality simultaneously. Whereas before only one person could have a Wii U controller while the others could only wave their Wii-motes like sticks, this could turn those Wii-motes into mini-Wii U controllers too.
That's a lot of speculation based on simple patent filing, I know, but it could end up being a big deal for the new console.
[Source]
