อ้าวคนละเรื่องเลยนี่หว่า โม่งโง่โดนพาดหัวดัก
I'm sorry if I make anyone read through the patent for this (correct me if I'm wrong), but
I don't think that this patent says what I've seen a couple of tech journals have been saying it does. It does talk about magnetic fields in relation to an analog stick, but the magnetic field is talked about in terms of using it to *control* the stick; not to *measure* it's position.
>Hall Effect joysticks are a type of joysticks that use magnets and electrical conductors to measure their position
From [The Ultimate Guide to Hall Effect controllers: What they are and why you need them | Windows Central](https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/what-is-a-hall-effect-controller-anyway-and-do-i-really-need-one)
From the introduction of the patent (19):
>In such controller \[sic\], there has been room for improvement in terms of enhancement of **a feeling** and an information amount **that a user recieves** when operating an operation element
The magnetic field comes into play to control
>a magnetorheological fluid whose viscosity changes in accordance with an intensity of a magnetic field **which serves as a resistance** when the operation element \[analog stick\] is displaced
>
>... it is possible to make the restoration to the initial position faster while **letting the user feel** a viscosity in movement of the \[analog stick\]. Here, by increasing the viscosity of the magnetorheological fluid, it is possible to let the user feel a greater viscosity.
The patent also talks in detail about how that viscosity is applied, like (20)
>... viscosity information for the first viscosity state and the second viscosity state may be stored as a preset in a predetermined storage section in advance. \[...\] the circuit may control the intensity of the magnetic field on the basis of the viscosity information corresponding to the designated preset.
>
>According to the above configuration example, it is possible to reduce the burden on the developer in development.
This sounds to me again like its talking about a UX feature that (game-) developers are supposed to actively take advantage of.
There are parts that actually talks about measurement:
>... the circuit may acquire information of the position of the \[analog stick\] \[...\] and **control** the intensity of the magnetic field on the basis of the corrected viscosity information.
But again, the information is going *into* this feature, not coming *from* it.
The patent talks more about using the position and movement of the analog stick later on as well, but I do not see any point at which anything about the method by which this data is acquired is specified.
Maybe Nintendo is pulling some 4d-chess legal maneuver by mentioning this "hall-effect-like" feature somewhere in the middle of an otherwise unrelated patent, but I haven't been able to find anything or a quote of anything substantial.
TLDR I think this is a patent for some haptic-feedback like feature for analog sticks, kinda like HD-Rumble was an original feature for the Joy-Cons when they released. Interesting, but not what's been put in the headline.