Nintendo of America has just signed to patent some new game software and hardware ideas... What are they up to?

This Tuesday, Nintendo registered five new Patents with the US Patent Office, which may be for ideas relating to the upcoming Revolution or future hardware. Interestingly, one is for a system to "automatically edit captured images for inclusion into 3D video game play", which explains this technique could be used so that "an image of a person's face may be mapped onto the head of an animated game player", a device which is being used in the upcoming Mario Kart Arcade game.

One is for "an external memory system having a programmable graphics processor for use in a video game system or the like", whatever that means, and another is for a system of unlocking hidden games through playing others.

Finally, the last patent is for a conversion adaptor for a memory card. No details are given but could this be a device for changing data from a memory card to some sort of hard drive? The Revolution does have Cube memory card slots after all.

If and when any of these ideas are unveiled by Nintendo, you'll hear it first here.