Nintendo started teasing about a ‘new experience’ on Nintendo Switch – which features players getting active with a flexible ring and leg-strap. Switch Fit?
While fans continue to speculate about what the mysterious attachments will actually do, huge hints may have been in our faces all along.
Old patents
As it turns out, the flexible ring might be connected to some old Nintendo patents from 2015 and 2016. These patents detailed a flexible frame that holds a sensor – although it was U-shaped in those documents.
A training implement (10) comprises a hollow body (12) formed from an aluminum alloy. The body is configured from two grips (12a) provided facing each other across a space, and a connecting section (12b) connecting the two grips. A load sensor (16) is disposed in the connecting section inside the body.
The load sensor is a load cell, the strain gauge is bonded on the inside of the body, and the portion of the body to which the strain gauge is bonded functions as a strain element. Consequently, when a user applies force so as to bring the two grips towards each other or applies force so as to separate the two grips, the load thereof is detected by the load sensor.
A flexible frame holding a sensor (i.e. Joy-Con) that can detect how stretched the frame becomes sounds in line with the trailer right?
If this really is that old patent, it’s definitely interesting to see how far it has come since its conceptual stages!
