Sony Patent Handheld with "Digital Tactile Pixels"

- From Joystiq:

"Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) was granted a patent on Friday for a "hand-held [sic] device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels." It'd be a stretch to say any of this is explicitly indicative of a PSP 2.0 or PSP phone, but it is interesting to note that "game device" is listed as one of the potential applications, alongside a plethora of other sony handhelds: phone, portable media player, email device, web browser device or navigation device.

As for defining "digital tactile pixels," claims 19 through 30 of the patent suggest that vibration acts as the "tactile" response. As our friends at PSP Fanboy point out, it could be a long time before we see anything to do with this patent (assuming we ever do).

Fun fact: The patent lists former Sony executive Phil Harrison as the inventor. Harrison, now the Directeur Général Délégué at Infogrames, was with the company when the patent was originally filed in January 2008."