Everyone's very excited about this wacky Nintendo patent

Will the NX be a control-pad shaped portable with an ovoid screen covering the entire front surface?

A new-ish Nintendo patent has been uncovered showing a pretty interesting idea.

The "game apparatus and information processing apparatus" is a self contained unit - not a plug-in controller for a larger device - with a screen made with Sharp's bendable-bezel technology.

This tech apparently allows Nintendo to stick a pair of thumbsticks through the screen itself, while extending its real estate to the edges of the device as you'll see in the diagrams below.

In addition to touch-screen controls and the thumbsticks, the design shows two shoulder buttons and gyroscope controls. There's also a storage card slot, 3D stereoscopic tech,

Huh! Pretty cool, right? Especially in conjunction with Nintendo's recent cloud-processing patent, which could compensate for the necessarily lower specs of a portable machine. Or maybe the device functions as a standalone but also as a controller for another device, like the 3DS.

As ever, it may mean nothing at all - but with new Nintendo hardware the NX due for 2016 reveal, and expected to combine portable and home console technology somehow, it's certainly raising speculative eyebrows.

Check out the full patent at Free Patents Online.