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Wii U Patents Point To HD, Glasses-Free 3D For Tablet Controller

Since being announced at E3 last year, there are still aspects of the Wii U that we aren't entirely aware of. It could, for all we know, have a built in cancer-curer, but I'm pretty sure something like that would be advertised. However, according to patents filed by Nintendo, that funny-looking GamePad controller might have more functionality than we think.

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Since being announced at E3 last year, there are still aspects of the Wii U that we aren’t entirely aware of. It could, for all we know, have a built in cancer-curer, but I’m pretty sure something like that would be advertised. However, according to patents filed by Nintendo, that funny-looking touchscreen controller might have more functionality than we think.

The patent documents, which can be seen here and here, suggest the controller might support the same glasses-free 3D that the 3DS features, as well as high-def resolutions.

Other possible features include wording that sounds like it might mean voice recognition, facial recognition, and data transfer between other devices, and some sort of zapper-esque gun peripheral. The gun was shown in the initial announcement trailer last year, so the rest of this is entirely possible.

All of this is very exciting until you get to the line that not everything mentioned in the patent may be made available to consumers. That means if Nintendo wanted to include some of these features to, say, only scientists who happen to be using a Wii U for whatever purpose, they’re covered. Besides, it’s not entirely uncommon for a patent to be overly broad to cover a load of “what if?” features.

But until then, what say you, gamers? What other features do you think the Wii U might hide?