Clever iPhone Patent Transforms Home Button Into Analogue Stick

Apple has patented an iPhone design that shrewdly incorporates an analogue control stick into the Home button.

The pop-out button, when elevated from the phone itself, behaves in a similar manner to the PSP and Nintendo 3DS analogue nubs, allowing for 360-degree movement. If ever brought to market, the spring-mounted input would be the first time an iPhone used mechanical controls for games.

However, design patents are not solid confirmation of commercial rollout, and Apple has never publicly expressed a desire to change how its games function.

The patent, unearthed by Forbes, was filed in 2013 and only very recently was made public for the first time.

Presently, iPhone and Android games that require a more traditional controller input tend to add virtual analogue sticks and buttons onto the screen, though this imitation has not caught on with all developers. Many of the most successful iPhone games are built specifically for touch-screen input, while a few make use of the device's accelerometers.