Get set for a touchscreen PSP

It’s difficult to take patents too seriously (MacBook sliding into your iMac anyone?), but today’s news that Sony is working on a touchscreen PSP looks like the real deal.

The official doc points towards a "hand-held [sic] device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels." The latter suggests you’d get some kind of haptic feedback, a la the Samsung Tocco.

It’s listed as a “potential gaming device” or a phone. So there’s a good chance we’re looking at the early plans for a touchscreen PSP or PSP phone. As we found out last week, Sony looks like it’s going it alone with the latter project, rather than hooking up with Sony Ericsson. This patent would certainly back that up.

In the meantime, we’re going to have to make do with the just–outed F305 gaming phone. But don’t be surprised if you catch sight of a touchscreen PSP in the next year or so.