Well now here's something definitely interesting. Tipster bitwreck sent this in; he just sniffed out a patent that was filed by Sony Japan. But... what is it?

  

I was just talking to Justin B. about this, and he points out that the illustrations here remind him of an old concept image for the PSP, as seen here. Note the button layout. And indeed, the patent was filed back in 2005 (before the very first PSP was introduced), so what we're seeing now could actually be a concept patent for the PSP-1000, theoretically making this PSP here a PSP 0 of sorts.

Well, you can check the Via link for the full patent document, complete with hifaluting patenting jargon. But here's some things we can piece together:

• Fig.4 shows the side of the PSP (the squiggly line just indicates that the rest of the device continues from there), there's a spring mechanism in there for what could be the UMD ("a recording medium cartridge," as described in the patent) lid.
• Fig.15 shows "the holder" (i.e. disc tray?) for the so-called recording medium cartridge. It's an "insertion hole."
• Fig.6 shows the front and back face of the "electronic apparatus." Labels with the number "4" indicate "operation buttons (control keys)." Label "50" shows the UMD insertion tray.

Strangely though, the document indicates that it was published on February 17, 2009, which is weird, considering all the recent rumors about the PSP 2. Hmm... Why would something filed back in 2005 resurface four years later?

Many thanks to bitwreck for sending us the tip and extracting the pics for us! You rock, man!

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