Kotaku
Gamespot has details on a strange new patent filing that may, or frankly may not, have game controller or console applications. The patent is for "electrorheological fluid device and an electronic apparatus, which realize satisfactorily changeable hardness or tension in a portion of the device or apparatus which a human body touches, enabling application to a product that needs to have portability".
Now, let's have NewScientist's Barry Fox, original source for said Gamespot news blurb, slow that down for us, with a little layman commentary for bonus points.
Sony's Tokyo labs are working on a clever way to get bulky electronic devices into small pockets. Their plan is to create handheld computers, phones and portable games consoles that fold up for carrying and then become rigid for use. The company's patent adds that the transition from soft to hard takes just milliseconds. It suggests that the same technique could even be used in a video game controller to make it jolt or change shape in response to on-screen action.
Cool. But why'd you have to get rid of the Dual Shock rumble feature, you cheapskates?
High-tech Sony patent has gaming potential [Gamespot]
